Occupational Hazards
by Pazelu
Summary: When Judy and Nick find that two other police officers, Wolford and McHorn, have gone MIA after a ten-vehicle pileup during a car chase, they are sent undercover by Chief Bogo to find out what happened to the two missing police officers. Nick and Judy must deal with old enemies in order to solve the case, and Nick must overcome a dark secret from his past with Judy's loving help.
1. Ten Cars Play Chicken with Each Other

"I love our job. Did I ever tell you that, Carrots?"

Nick rolled down the window of the police car and rested his arm on the door. He sighed contentedly and lay back in the driver's seat, looking out the window and watching the cars, big and small, go by. Judy gave him an amused look, a smile spread across her face.

"Only a thousand times, Officer Wilde," she said.

"Hey, come on," Nick replied in a playful tone. "Just cause we're on duty doesn't mean we have to call each other 'Officer.'"

"I think calling you 'Officer Wilde' makes you look hotter when I say it."

"Heh." Nick have an approving nod. "I'm glad you think so."

"I'm sorry," Judy said quickly. "Have you gone a darker red?"

Nick slowly turned his head and looked at her. His cop sunglasses and cocky, toothy smile did nothing to mask the undeniable truth that he had, in fact, gone a darker red.

"Oh, my gosh, I made you blush! That's so cute!"

"Carrots…" he said through his clenched-tooth smile, "You're not helping."

"Come ooon," Judy teased him, "admit it. You're blushing because I called you hot."

"Officer Hopps, I am currently exercising the unalienable right to remain silent." Nick was still all smiles.

"Please?" Judy laid her large ears back behind her head and clasped her paws together, completing her plan by twitching her wet bunny nose and looking at Nick with big, soulful eyes.. "Please just admit it. For me?" She uttered the last two words at a higher pitch so as to emphasize their meaning.

Nick gave a long, loud, weary sigh. "Fine. I was blushing."

Judy straightened up immediately. "There we go! That's the honesty I was looking for!"

"Wait a minute, wait a minute," Nick said, taking his arm off the car door. He was no longer smiling, and looked very agitated. "This was all just a way of showing me that you can get to me?"

"Wha - No!" Judy was quick to defend herself. "It was just playful banter!"

"I know." Nick's smile came back, accompanied by laughter. Judy, while relieved that he was joking, rewarded his acting with a sportive punch on the shoulder.

"Nicholas Wilde, I can't believe the nerve of you!" She laughed as she said it.

"Look, we're doing nothing but sitting here in a squad car, drinking coffee -" Nick picked up his paper cup for emphasis, "-and watching for anyone doing 80 in a 55. It's like we're getting paid to be lazy...and bored, now that I think about it. At any rate, guy's gotta keep himself entertained." He stared at the Starfish coffee logo, a smiling dolphin in a green background, on his cup with a contemplative look, then gave a small shrug with his shoulders and a "Hmph" of dismissiveness.

Judy smiled. "Well, when we're tearing down the street trying to bust that new street racer, I want you to remember this conversation. And if you're bored, I'm sure the chief can get you something even more tedious to do."

"Oh, _please_ ," Nick said. "There's only one animal in this car who ever got parking duty. I'm planning on having it stay that way." His paw moved towards a knob on the dashboard. He rested his index finger on it before turning to Judy. "Radio?" he said.

"Sure, why not?" she sighed, still smiling. "It's my turn to pick the station anyway."

Nick smiled. "Top 50 coming right up." He pushed the button.

With no warning, a wild animal screamed from the speakers, accompanied by a cacophony of evil. Judy leaped out of her seat and hit her head on the interior roof of the car. Then the music started to fade, and it did so quickly. She rubbed her head, ears still ringing, then looked over at Nick, who was twisting the dial as quickly as he could. His cop glasses were hanging off his muzzle, and his hair was on end. He turned his head, slowly, eyes wider than ever and teeth clenched, to look at Judy.

"Are you okay?" she asked uncertainly after seeing what had happened to him.

"Yeah, yeah," he replied weakly. "I think my eardrums ruptured. What happened just now?"

"Probably a prank. The veteran cops like pulling practical jokes on the new recruits." Judy felt a touch of irritation. "It's just a game to them. They did the same 'heavy metal' joke with me when I first started out. I'd expect more stuff like this to happen, if I were you."

"Owww," was the wheezing reply she received. Nick slowly put his glasses back on. "All right, moving away from the ear cancer station now." He relaxed his facial muscles and began to twist another dial on the dashboard, simultaneously turning the volume back up at a moderate pace. "And we have…" He lifted his paw from the scanner, continuing to turn the volume dial with his other paw to make the music audible. Judy heard the music fade in. She knew Nick liked it, because she had heard him listening to this same song multiple times, but it wasn't her type. Nick gave an appreciative and relieved laugh; Judy knew he was anticipating another incident.

"I've been dreaming up catchy Zootopia slogans lately, Carrots," he said, drowning out the music. "What about this one?" He spread his paws dramatically in front of him. _"Zootopia: Where 'primal fear' is no more than the name of a band."_

Judy chuckled; she had to admit, the fox was on to something. "Nice. You should run that by the mayor."

Nick's features darkened. "I did. Then she shot me in the throat and tried to make me kill you."

"Oh." Judy laid back in her seat, brought back to earth by his remark. " _That_ mayor."

"Yep." Nick sighed again. "That one." He hovered his paw over the station dial. "Next station?" he asked, clearly attempting to brush the thought of Bellwether under the rug before he slipped into a worse mood.

Judy nodded with minimal effort; she was already having a flashback to their last encounter with Bellwether. The sinister cackle she gave before she shot Nick, the malice emanating from her eyes, her fake phone call that would have gotten Nick killed...She really thought the two investigators were going to die in that pit.

"Hey, cheer up, Carrots." Nick gave her a light punch on the shoulder; she snapped out of her thoughts and looked at him. She didn't have to see his eyes to know that his smile was kind, genuine. "That's behind us...and Bellwether's behind bars. Besides…" He put his right arm around her kissed the top of her head. "We've got each other."

Judy felt herself blushing. "Nick, stop it," she said with a smile, pushing him back a bit.

"Come on," he said, warm smile still spread over his face. "You can't tell me you're not even the slightest bit as attracted to me as I am to you. I mean, how many times have we escaped bad situations by the tips of our tails together? There's at least a bit of chemistry between us."

"If anyone ever found out there was something going on with us, word would travel quickly." Judy could barely stomach the thought of anyone finding out that they were in love. "A fox and a rabbit? There's nothing even close to opposites attracting in such a drastically different way. Well, maybe a lion and a zebra, but even then, it happens more often than you'd think."

"Look, I don't care what animals would say about us. And at any rate, consider it: two natural enemies, putting their differences aside and working in harmony? We could start to build that Zootopia you dreamed of as a kit." Nick shuddered. "Jeez, that's a thought. Did you ever notice the actual name for a baby rabbit is a kit and the name for a baby fox is a kit, too? Some kind of subconscious attempt at harmony or something. That's too much thinking." He grabbed his Starfish cup and gulped a few mouthfuls of coffee. Then, looking as if a thought had just occurred to him, he looked down at his chest. "Why do I still have my seatbelt on?"

"Did we just have a romantic conversation with heavy metal music in the background?" Judy observed.

Nick raised his eyebrows. "Huh. Indeed we did." His paw moved back to the tuning dial. "Shall we continue our search?"

"Lead the way, Officer," Judy replied. Truth be told, she didn't care about the music anymore; getting Nick to divulge his feelings for her was just too important for her to care about anything else. Even if she didn't want to admit it to anyone, the crafty fox mattered deeply to her, and there was nothing she wouldn't do to keep him safe from harm. She might have been cautious of him at first, but just as he seemed to have been enjoying working the missing otter case with her, she had mutual feelings for him. The repellent spray incident was the results of years of her parents and friends telling her not to trust foxes, but now she knew they couldn't have been more wrong. Nick was one of the good guys, and deep down, she had the feeling that he always had been. Something about him had constantly radiated a feeling of trust ever since they met, and even though she couldn't quite put her paw on it, she knew it was there. For that reason, whatever it may be, she felt a deep caring for him.

Nick moved to change stations, but had barely touched the dial before a streak of sparkling purple and neon green streaked past the driver's side of the squad car, accompanied by the roar of a souped-up engine. The fox once again jumped up in surprise. He wasted no time in turning the radio off and the engine over. Judy grabbed the radio from the police scanner located on the passenger's side of the car and hit the siren.

"This is Officer Hopps and Officer Wilde. We are currently in pursuit of the street racer. Requesting backup at Downtown District."

" _Ten-four, Officer Hopps,"_ came the gruff voice of Officer Wolford. _"Officers Wolford and McHorn moving to intercept. Have fun with this one, Wilde. Don't get too torn up out there."_

Nick laughed as he grabbed the steering wheel. "The ZPD is far from my only source of driving experience." He peeled out of their parking spot; Judy haphazardly threw her seatbelt across her lap.

" _Oh, that's right. You're friends with the sloth."_

"Hey, Flash was the last street racer we put away," Nick replied, zooming down the busy street. "Looks can be deceiving, can they not?"

" _No kidding. You're a good cop. And here I thought foxes only worked for the wrong side of the law."_

Judy looked at Nick, afraid of his reaction to the discriminant remark. He growled and bared his teeth. "You just touched a nerve, Wolford."

" _Good. Now use that adrenaline to get this guy before he does any damage."_

"My pleasure." Nick shifted gears, and they hurtled down the street. The back of the racer's car was getting closer and closer. Judy wanted to comfort Nick, but at the same time, she was worried about distracting him and losing the racer again. She muted the police scanner so the Wolford's car wouldn't be able to hear their conversation.

"Don't let them get to you, Nick," she said. "They're just trying to rile you up."

"I know." Nick's response was short and agitated; his teeth were still bared. "But I'll catch this guy. I'll show them."

She gently placed her paw on his arm, which she found difficult to do in a speeding police car. "Please, don't do anything irrational, Nick. There's no point in taking them seriously."

"Can we do this later, Carrots?" Nick's eyes never deviated from the license plate of the speeding car.

Judy sighed and took her paw off of him. She unmuted the radio, now focused on communicating with Wolford's car. "This is Officer Hopps. We're closing the gap between us and the racer. We'd finish this a lot faster if you guys would stop messing around and get over here."

" _It's not like we can will ourselves to be there in two seconds. These things take time, you know."_ A screeching noise came over the radio, followed by the sound of Wolford slamming his paw on the brakes of his car. _"Hey! What the - Officers Wolford and McHorn now in pursuit of secondary racer!"_

"There's another one?!" Judy cried out.

" _Either that or they just want to get themselves arrested. They're leading us into the Downtown District. We're going to need more backup if we want to catch these guys. Officer Clawhauser, this is Officer Wolford requesting GPS navigation."_

" _Ten-four,"_ came the cheetah's excited voice. _"Pulling up Giraffe Positioning System camera feed in Downtown District."_

Nick grabbed the radio from the scanner. "Ben, we need you to track both my car and Wolford's and figure out where these racers are leading us. This seems too unlikely to not be a setup."

" _Mmmph, y' phink there's sumfin' fishy going on?"_ Clawhauser asked through what Judy assumed was a doughnut.

"Two racers in the same day? They've never done that. It seems too coincidental to not be suspicious. And, Ben -" Judy said, "-swallow, then speak."

A loud gulping noise came from Clawhauser's end of the radio. _"Sorry."_ A brief hiatus prevented communication, but only momentarily. _"Here we go. It looks like they're both leading you to...the center of Downtown."_

Judy took the opportunity to talk. "That's the most populated area in Zootopia at this time of day!"

" _Exactly, Hopps,"_ Wolford butted in. _"What do you think street racing is to these animals? They don't care what they have to do, they just want to keep putting the pedal to the metal. That's why we need to stop them before they hurt any civilians. Wait a minute. Racer just turned left down an alley. Track us, Clawhauser."_

" _Danny, could you move a scooch to the right?"_ Clawhauser asked.

" _Oh, yeah,"_ came Danny's reply. _"Here we go, how's that?"_

" _Perfect! Now keep your head as still as you can."_ Another pause in Clawhauser's directions. _"They're leading you away from Wilde and Hopps. I'm not sure exactly where, but it'll probably be some sort of crowded area. Wow, Danny, you're the best GPS we have on the force! That camera is perfectly still! Not bouncy or wavy or anything!"_

" _Hauser, focus,"_ came McHorn's voice. _"We can admire Danny's cinematic prowess later."_

" _Oh, right,"_ Clawhauser said somewhat apologetically. _"He's heading into the main tunnel. Watch yourselves in there."_

Judy couldn't see through the windshield; the car was too tall for her to do so. "Nick, how close are we to getting our racer?"

"I can see his license plate clearly. S-P-E-D-E-E-1," the fox spelled for her.

"'Speedy one?' Huh." Judy was surprised. "You'd think another animal would have taken that number by now."

"Well, it doesn't matter what his license plate says; all we have to do is outdrive him, and he'll be behind bars in no time."

" _Wait."_ Wolford's amused voice came over the scanner. _"You mean to tell me you're not using any of the LANS?"_

"The whats?" Nick asked, completely bewildered.

"The Legal Animal Neutralization Systems," Judy explained; she felt a twinge of disbelief. "Didn't you pay attention in Evasive Maneuver Class?"

"Aww, where's the fun in using gadgets and weapons to take them down? Can't we ever just have a good old-fashioned race?"

" _You actually want to give the criminals a chance at escaping? I guess I wasn't wrong about you, fox boy."_

"Oh, you're on." Nick was now clearly fed up with Wolford's insults. "Twenty bucks says we catch our guy before you catch yours."

" _Make it fifty and you've got a deal."_

"Done." Nick muted the radio and shifted gears yet again, and they picked up speed; Judy felt herself being pushed into the back of her seat. "Uh, Nick?" she asked timidly. "What's your plan?"

"Get fifty dollars from Wolford, that's my plan." Nick looked at her. "Start pushing LANS buttons. I'm not letting them win."

" _Wow, you two are really competitive in the field, aren't you?"_ came Clawhauser's voice.

"Uh, Ben…" Judy told the cheetah, "Maybe you shouldn't get them so riled up."

" _Right,"_ Clawhauser said hastily. _"These feline lips are now zipped."_

"Thanks, Ben," Judy said, now turning to the LANS buttons. One was labeled "Tailpipe." She couldn't remember its exact function, but she knew it was to be used in high-speed chases that took place in densely populated areas. She pressed it, eager to find out what it did. Out of the hood of the car came a gun-looking device; Nick clearly wasn't too happy with it.

"Carrots…" he addressed Judy uncertainly. "Why is there a gun on top of our car?"

Wolford's snide laugh came from the radio. _"Well, you should have paid more attention in Evasive Maneuver Class. Sounds like that's the spider-web launcher."_

" _Oh, boy, oh, boy!"_ Clawhauser was on the radio again. _"That's the new one! Let me know how it goes!"_

The LANS lived up to its name; a rather large spiderweb flew out of the gun and stuck itself tightly to the racer's tailpipe, ensuring that the exhaust could no longer leave the vehicle. Smoke quickly started enveloping the cabin, and the car slowed down rapidly before turning 90 degrees and stopping abruptly.

Judy felt Nick slam on the brakes. He unbuckled his seatbelt and threw his door open. Judy did the same; she ran over to the racer's vehicle, standing beside Nick while he rapped the driver's side window of the car with two knuckles. The window rolled down, and the smoke cleared from the cabin. The driver, angry as could be, was…

"Finnick?" Nick said.

"No, I'm his mother, _ace_ ," Finnick replied, clearly miffed.

"Wait," Judy said. "This is the guy you conned Jumbeaux's with. What happened to your clunker?"

"It's called an overhaul, _sweetheart,_ " Finnick spat. "I notice you're still stuck with second-rate cars on the force." He looked at Nick with hatred in his eyes. " _Traitor_."

"Well, we caught you, didn't we?" Nick said. "Exit the vehicle and put your paws behind your back."

"Not yet, you haven't caught me." What happened next was a flash before Judy's eyes; Finnick launched the door open with respectable force for a fennec fox, sending it smashing into Nick's body. The latter doubled over with an "Oof!" of pain, leaving Finnick free to bolt for his freedom. Judy responded without thinking. The next thing she knew, she had used her innate jumping ability to get on top of Finnick's car, leap off, and bring herself down directly on top of the running fennec.

"Jeez, I thought rabbits were supposed to be _nice_."

"And I thought foxes were supposed to be _smart_ ," Judy retorted as she cuffed his paws behind his back. She looked back at Nick. "No offense, Nick."

"Nah, I'm fine," Nick replied between wheezes.

"You got hit with a car door," Judy replied as she picked up Finnick; he was small enough that she couldn't easily guide him to the car without kneeling over.

"Yeah," Nick panted. "Doors are evil."

"It just hates that ridiculous getup you're in, Wilde," Finnick snarled.

"At least I don't fit in the baby elephant costume," Nick retorted with a smile and aura of superiority.

"WHAT?!" Finnick started kicking and gnashing his teeth at Nick, giving Judy a tougher time trying to hang onto him.

Judy smiled and spoke into the radio on her shoulder. "This is Officers Hopps and Wilde. We have a racer in custody. I repeat, we have a racer in custody. Returning to the station for processing." As she put Finnick in the back of the car, she saw Nick lean towards his shoulder, as well.

"You owe me fifty, Wolford," he said with a cocky smile as Judy closed the door. "That is, unless you've gotten your suspect already." Something was wrong; Wolford didn't respond. Not even a snort of anger came from the radio. Nick's smile faded. "Wolford? McHorn? Are you guys okay?" His question was met with static.

Judy wasted no time in contacting the station. "Officer Clawhauser, this is Officer Hopps. Wolford and McHorn aren't responding. What happened to them?

Clawhauser's voice was now fraught with worry as he scrambled to maintain his composure. _"Um...Uh... Pulling up GPS. Uh, Danny? Where's Wolford's vehicle?"_

A long pause ensued. _"I don't know! I can't find them anywhere!"_ came Danny's voice.

"What was their last known position?" Judy asked.

" _I couldn't track them while they were in the tunnel! They could be anywhere in Zootopia!"_

" _CLAWHAUSER!"_ Chief Bogo made his presence easily noticeable. _"What in the name of sanity is going on?!"_

" _Two street racers, Chief!"_ Clawhauser said excitedly. _"Nick and Judy have one in custody, but Wolford and McHorn are unresponsive. Hopps and Wilde are on their way to help them!"_

" _WHAT?! Give me that radio!"_ A quick flurry of movement happened on Clawhauser's end of the radio. The chief's voice made Judy jump in surprise.

" _Listen, you two,"_ he grunted angrily, _"I don't know what you think you're doing, but your number one priority is to get that racer back to the station! And NOW!"_ He shouted the last word with extreme emphasis.

Nick grabbed his radio violently, and Judy knew this was not going to end well. "Chief, we might have two dying officers on our paws. There's no way I'm leaving them there."

" _You can and you will, Wilde. OR I'LL HAVE YOUR TAIL!"_

"If that's what I have to sacrifice to save two fellow officers, I'll do it." Nick's voice dripped with defiance; Judy took out her recording pen and marked it. She would let Wolford and McHorn listen to it later.

"Are you disobeying your chief, Wilde?" came Finnick's voice. "Whose side are you on, anyway?"

"That's it," Nick said angrily. "You're getting muzzled." He reached for the muzzle on his belt, clearly hoping to instill fear in Finnick; instead, Finnick merely laughed.

"You're forgetting that's not even my size," the fennec taunted.

Judy saw Nick advance towards Finnick, and she put her arm out to keep him from hurting the suspect. "I've got it," she said. He heeded her and stopped, allowing her to bring forth a roll of duct tape. Now Finnick was worried.

"Hey, wait!" he protested as Judy walked to the side door. "You can't gag me with tape! That's against the law!"

Judy ripped an appropriate-sized piece of tape off of the roll. "Wrong. If a ZPD officer is unable to muzzle a suspect, he or she can use other methods of keeping their lips shut. Case in point -" She slapped the piece of tape over Finnick's mouth. "- duct tape. You have the right to remain silent." She closed the door again and turned around to see Nick climbing back into the driver's seat of the car; he was still in a heated discussion with the chief.

"-and I refuse to leave an animal behind! Life over orders, Chief. That's my policy."

A long, uncomfortable silence lingered; Judy was afraid of the chief's reaction.

" _Fine."_ Chief Bogo's voice was deadly calm. _"Assist Officers Wolford and McHorn. But believe you me, fox, we're going to have a lengthy, unpleasant discussion about your insubordination when you get back."_

"Officers Wilde and Hopps moving to assist Wolford and McHorn." Nick started the car, activated the sirens again, and started the route to the tunnel where the other two cops were last seen.

" _Attention all units, we have a massive pile-up in the tunnel, multiple wounded. Medics and first responders are on their way."_ A strong sense of fear grabbed hold of Judy and refused to let her go. She looked at Nick; he was clearly as uneasy as she was.

"That could be Wolford and McHorn," she said.

"No kidding." Nick swallowed nervously and kept his eyes on the road. Judy could hear cars pulling over on the sides of the road to give them room. Whistles and applause hit her hypersensitive bunny ears; the bystanders were cheering for them. She could see that Nick was feeding of their energy, and that he was more focused. Street after street flew past them, until suddenly, they found the entrance to the tunnel.

Judy spoke into her shoulder. "Officers Hopps and Wilde entering vicinity of Wolford's and McHorn's last known position."

" _Be careful out there, guys,"_ said Clawhauser. _"Oh, I hope everyone's okay."_

"You and me both, Ben," Nick responded. "You and me both." He started to put his foot on the brake. What Judy heard next made her imagine the worst: "Oh, no."

"What is it, Nick?" she asked apprehensively.

He gave no response, but instead stopped the squad car. He dashed out into the stopped traffic and his face fell when he saw what had happened. "Oh, no."

Judy climbed out of the car and was met with images of flaming, crumpled cars and smoke billowing from the scene. At least ten civilians had smashed into each other. Each driver was either unconscious or otherwise unable to get out of the car due to blockage or injury. Bystanders were everywhere, stunned, appalled, and disbelieving. Judy looked back at where Nick had been, but he was sprinting to the crash as fast as his fox legs could carry him.

"Officers Wilde and Hopps at the site of the pile-up. All drivers involved are incapacitated. No status on passengers as of yet. Request immediate medical attention."

" _Ten-four, Officer Wilde. The ambulances are already on their way."_ Clawhauser was no longer his cheery self; Judy knew he had found out that something very bad had happened. She started helping the victims. Nick had already begun talking to one of them, a lion who was telling Nick that the only injury he sustained was a jolt to the chest, that he was a doctor, and that he wanted to help the rest of the wounded. Judy ran to the closest car and began talking to the family of leopards that were inside.

"Are you all okay?" she asked the mother.

"My arm is pinned down, but I think my husband and son are able to move," came the reply.

"All right," Judy said. "You two, come with me." She pointed to the husband and son. "We need to get you out of here so we can get her to the hospital faster."

The father leopard grabbed his toddler son by the paw and said, "Come on. We need to help the kind police officer."

"But...but what about Mommy?" the kid asked.

"She's going to be all right, but we have to get out of the car before she can get better." The kid agreed to get out of the car. "Okay, Daddy." The leopard picked up his son and held him out of the window, silently asking Judy to take him for a moment. She obliged, and held the kid while his father crawled out of the car through the window.

"Thank you so much, Officer," he said. He took his son back, then turned to his wife and reassured her. "It's going to be okay, hon. Everything will be okay."

"You're right." Judy added her own support into the mix. "The hospitals in Zootopia are excellent. We've got ambulances that will be here in less than five minutes to get you to safety. Is there anything I can do for you in the meantime?"

"No," came the reply. "You've got more animals to save."

Judy smiled. "Okay. Just wait. Everything will work out." She turned to the father and his son. "I have to ask you guys to give us some space so we can secure all of the wounded."

"No problem, Officer," the dad said, smiling kindly. "Let us know if you need anything."

Judy progressed to the next car. The cabin only contained a wolf, but he was clearly in pain.

"Officer Hopps," she introduced herself. "Sir, what's happened?"

"I don't know," he said in a British accent, still wincing. "It's my leg; I think it's broken."

"Okay, sir, the ambulances are on their way. In the meantime, stay here and try not to move your leg too much. Once the paramedics get you out of here, you're in good paws."

"Cheers." The wolf gave a deep exhale and gave her a thumbs up with his blood-stained paw. "Don't worry about me now. I'm sure someone else needs more help than I do. I'll just keep calm and focus on not dying."

"Judy!" Judy looked up to see Nick running towards her.

"What's going on, Nick?" she asked.

"I just finished a sweep of the other cars."

"Already?" Judy was surprised; Nick worked faster than she thought.

"I'm motivated. That's how I finished getting the able-bodied animals out of here. We have twelve injuries out of the thirty-seven animals involved in the crash."

"Make that fourteen out of forty-one; a wolf with a broken leg and a leopard who can't move her arm. It doesn't sound like the arm has been damaged, I'm pretty sure the only problem is that she can't move it. How long until the paramedics get here?"

"I think somewhere along the lines of two minutes." Nick took his glasses off and rubbed his eyes. "The racer crashed into another vehicle, and I think that's what started the accident. And I can't find Wolford's car, much less Wolford _or_ McHorn." He sighed. "There's something disastrously wrong going on here, but what is it?"

"It can't be Bellwether, can it?" Judy asked fearfully.

"Of course not, she's behind bars. Anyone with a grudge against Wolford, McHorn, or cops in general could have done this. We have the entire criminal population of Zootopia, plus all of the other enemies those two made throughout their entire lives, to comb through, and I don't know where to start." Nick looked at Judy as if a thought had occurred to him. "You don't think this is one of their pranks, do you?"

Judy thought about it. "Wolford and McHorn might have tampered with your radio and tried to make you deaf, but they would never endanger civilians just to have a little fun with you. They're strictly by-the-books when it comes to protocol. This isn't them."

"We can get witness statements, right?" Nick said pleadingly, as if he was willing it to be true.

"Officers?" Judy turned around to see a vixen walking towards them. "Yes?" she asked.

"My name is May," the vixen said.

"Is there...something you wanted to tell us, ma'am?" Nick asked.

"I believe I might be of some assistance in finding out who did this terrible thing."

Judy's ears perked up; a break in the case! That's just what they needed. "Okay. May, we're getting all of the injured animals to the hospital before we leave. Can you stay here until everyone's safe and then come down to the station with us?"

"Oh, absolutely," May replied. "I feel horrible about what's happened."

The sound of sirens now reached Judy's big ears; the medics were close. "Thank you, May. We need as much information as we can get." She shook the vixen's paw.

"It's my pleasure to help such good animals like yourselves, Officers." May walked to the side of the street and sat down, watching the chaos with saddened eyes.

"We need more animals like that in Zootopia, Carrots. More animals like May. More animals like you," Nick said, putting his paw on her shoulder. Judy's heart leaped. Nick removed his paw; he had felt her jump. "Sorry," he apologized. "I didn't mean to startle you."

Judy took a deep breath. "Oh, no. That's fine. I just didn't expect you to do that."

Screeches accompanying the sirens could be heard from another part of the tunnel. Judy was afraid that the ambulances had crashed, as well, but then the red and blue flashes echoed off the tunnel walls as they medics pulled into view. She watched as they stopped at the crash and opened the back doors of their vehicles. Animals poured out of them, all scrambling to one car or another and getting the wounded out of their respective cages. It was then she realized the magnitude of what had happened, and she couldn't stomach it anymore. She sat down and began to weep. It was too terrible for anyone to imagine. How could this have happened?

She felt Nick wrap his arm around her gently. "Hey, hey," he said in a soft, comforting voice. "It's all right. All of these animals are going to be fine. There's no reason that they shouldn't." He stopped himself for a moment. "You did well today."

Though Judy felt better, Nick's words did nothing to stem the flow of tears pouring from her eyes. "How?" she asked him through her sobs. "How could this happen?"

"I don't know, Carrots. I don't know." A car door slammed, and Judy felt Nick flinch.

"WILDE!" The chief's infuriated tone jerked her attention away from her sadness. She looked up and saw Chief Bogo marching toward Nick as if he were coming for the fox's head.

Nick immediately got up. "Chief, I have a suspect in the back of the -"

"Do I look like I care?" the chief interrupted him. "You went against a direct order from your superior officer!"

"To save the lives of two hard-working cops!" Nick said. "Judy and I were the first animals on-scene, and it could have been much worse if we hadn't shown up!"

Bogo changed the subject. "Speaking of two hard-working cops, where are Wolford and McHorn? I've got to chew them out for not getting the second racer."

Judy stood up and spoke for Nick; she might have been crying, but there was no way she would let the brave fox take the blame. "Chief, the second racer was wounded and is on his way to the hospital. As for Wolford and McHorn, there's no sign of them and we haven't found any clues as to where they went."

"Do you mean to tell me we have two officers missing, Hopps?" If the chief was angry before, he was plain livid now.

"Yes, Chief, we do," Nick butted in before Judy could respond. "But there was nothing we could have done, we had to help everyone involved before -"

The chief held up his hoof, and Judy felt a shiver of dread run down her spine. "You two...will come...with me," he said slowly, in a voice of quavering anger. "Now." He turned his back to the two and walked to their squad car, picked up Finnick with one hoof, and started towards his own car. Judy looked at Nick, fearing the worst. From Nick's facial cues, so was he.

"So…" he said uncertainly, "do we bring May or…?"


	2. Nick Gets Kicked Out of College

"-a blatant disregard for protocol, not to mention an unacceptable amount of rebellion and an insufficient knowledge of Zootopia Police equipment!"

Judy's gigantic ears hurt from Chief Bogo's yelling. If ever there was a hobby that buffalo liked, it was yelling at lower-ranking members of law enforcement. Judy looked at Nick, who was frozen to his chair, unmoving and unable to take his eyes off the towering chief. His mouth was contorted into a mortified frown, and his bushy tail was sticking straight up. She'd seen this reaction before, when she first showed him her carrot-shaped recording pen that she had used to tape him confessing to felony tax evasion; whenever Nick pulled that face, it meant that something very bad was happening. In this particular instance, Judy couldn't agree more.

"What do you have to say for yourselves?" The chief had finished his monologue and was waiting for explanation. Nick was still unable to move, so Judy stepped in.

"Chief, we did disobey your order, but our motives were pure. Officers Wolford and McHorn were not responding, and we were the best chance of saving their lives. We weren't going to just ignore the situation and risk losing two great police officers. Sure, the officers in question might have taken advantage of Officer Wilde's rookie status and been discriminant towards him, but they certainly don't deserve to die." She looked over at Nick. "And I'm sure when he's no longer paralyzed, Officer Wilde will agree with me." She waved her paw in front of his face uncertainly. Nothing, not even an eye twitch. Nick really was out of it.

"I've got it," said Chief Bogo. "WILDE!" Nick leaped into the air with a yelp. As he came back down, he threw his tail in front of his eyes. After the outburst had passed, he seemed to get a hold of himself, lifted his tail from his view, and slowly came back to a comfortable sitting position. Judy looked at him sympathetically and said, "Are you okay, Officer Wilde?"

"Yeah," he said shakily.

"Good," Bogo interjected. "Now that we've all finished playing statue impersonator, I have news for the both of you. As I'm sure you know, our forces are swarming the city, looking for whoever might have had a paw, hoof, or otherwise in the tunnel pile-up. Now that Wolford and McHorn are missing in action, our workforce just got smaller. So here's the good news: you're not getting fired anytime soon."

Judy heard Nick breathe a sigh of relief.

"Hold it, Wilde!" Bogo yelled. Nick yelped again and laid his ears back, covering them with his paws. "There's some bad news."

Judy's heart leaped. "What is it?" she asked.

"You two get to go undercover."

She sank back in her seat. It wasn't as bad as she thought it was going to be, and she was imagining months of parking duty. Nick, however, wasn't as relieved; he gave a small whimper that was, unfortunately, heard by Chief Bogo.

"Are you complaining, Wilde?" he asked in a way that seemed to hint that the answer should be "no."

"Eeehhh…" Nick rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly and submissively. "It's just that...a lot of criminals know my face. And some of those criminals might possibly - I mean, they might not be mad at me anymore, but they usually hold grudges, and I tend to - well, I guess what I'm trying to say is that -" Nick grabbed ahold of himself. "If they want to kill me, they will, and that would somewhat hinder the mission objective, whatever that may be, right? I mean -" He chuckled, and Judy could tell he was struggling. "-the mission objective isn't to have me killed, right?"

The chief was silent; Judy knew he was letting Nick stew in the thought that he might want him dead, and she couldn't let that happen. "Of course not, Nick," she said. "I'm sure there's a much different task we need to complete."

"'Nick?'" Bogo asked. "You two are on first-name terms now?"

Judy bit her lip. As much as she wanted to tell the chief off and let him know that normal animals called each other by their first names, she knew she couldn't, so she let her ears droop, miming shame.

Chief Bogo waved his large, meaty hoof. "It doesn't matter. If you two are each other's heartthrobs, that's fine; just don't get distracted from your police work. And Wilde, you have nothing to worry about. Our FDA experts have new prototype technology for you to use, including disguises. An FDA agent will brief you on the equipment." He stopped and looked at Nick disbelievingly. Judy turned to look at the fox, as well. Nick was raising his paw timidly with the same frightened frown he had when he was frozen to his seat.

"Uhh...the FDA? What is that?"

Chief Bogo started having a facial spasm. Judy, sensing trouble, tried to stop her thumping leg while reassuring the large pachyderm. "I've got it, chief." She turned to Nick. "The FDA is the Ferret-controlled Defense Agency. They're responsible for the LANS and all of the standard issue PEDs on all of Zootopia's squad cars, among other things. 'PEDs' means Pursuit-Ending Devices," she added.

"Ah." Nick licked his lips with nervousness as he stared at the chief. "Thanks, Officer Hopps."

"Are you satisfied, Officer Wilde?" asked Chief Bogo.

"I-I-b-I believe I am, sir," came the reply. Judy could tell that he was still struggling to keep it together.

"Good. Now pay attention," the chief ordered. Judy sat up straight in her chair; something important was about to happen. Bogo started his second monologue of the day:

"As you both know, Wolford and McHorn were in pursuit of a street racer earlier this morning. Prior to their disappearance, they were heading into the main tunnel. After the crash, no trace of Wolford, McHorn, or their car could be found. It doesn't take a dolphin to figure out that someone modified the scene. Maybe it was Wolford and McHorn, but I'm sure we all know they are highly unlikely to commit such a felony...because they have a respect for protocol." He glared at Nick as he finished his sentence.

"Bottom line: Either we have two upstanding police officers who have suddenly become criminals, or a third party with malicious intent has captured them and is planning something sinister. I speak for the entire department when I say we believe it's the latter." He gave a cruel laugh, and it made Judy anxious; whatever he was about to tell them couldn't be very pleasant. "Now, we don't know why the culprit or culprits might want to abduct police officers or animals in general. The most widespread suspicion is that someone might be continuing Inmate Bellwether's work. Whether that's what's really happening or not remains to be seen." The sudden slam of Bogo's hooves on the desk made Judy jump. "So…" He let the word hang in midair for a while before continuing. "Your objective is to track down those two, figure out what happened to them, and apprehend the party or parties responsible for their capture, if that is indeed what happened. But be warned, Hopps-" here he looked at Judy, "-you'll have to play nice with the criminals. Get to know them. Befriend them. And then, when they trust you enough...That's when you strike." His intense eyes darted between Nick and Judy rapidly.

"Uh, Chief?" Nick's timid tones pierced the silence. "I understand the objective and all that other stuff you've said so far, but, uh...What are our cover identities?"

The chief nodded, a smile on his face. "You don't _have_ any, Wilde."

Judy looked at Nick, who was clearly frightened. "What?" he said quietly. "But, Chief-"

"You see-" Chief Bogo said, interrupting Nick. "-good cops have cover identities. But the best cops can improvise on the fly. Now, I _wanted_ to give you cover IDs, but the higher-ups at Invertebrate Affairs, in their eternal wisdom, decided against it. They claim that they need to see how well a fox can smooth talk his way into being trusted by a complete stranger."

Judy already knew how well Nick could pull a con; she had had firstpaw experience with his deceptive methods. "Chief, I'm sure Officer Wilde is more than capable of completing the task."

"Was that a shot?" Nick said, clearly offended.

"No!" Judy said quickly. "No! I only meant that you're a smart animal and that this is an outstanding opportunity to prove it."

"Oh," Nick replied, still looking a bit wounded.

"Are you two done with your office drama?" Bogo burst out.

Judy wanted to point out that not only was he was making a mountain out of a figurative molehill, but he was also becoming hypocritical; instinct and intuition, however, told her to keep her mouth shut. If there was one thing she knew she had been doing wrong this entire time, it was responding to Bogo's anger-fueled rhetorical questions. Nick fell silent as well, so as not to further provoke the towering buffalo. When Bogo realized that he wasn't going to get an answer, he began pacing, his right hoof cradling his left as he placed both appendages behind his back.

"Now, Wilde, as much as I don't want to admit it, you're one of the best cops we have on the force, even though you're a rookie. So, against my will, I'm telling you that there is no doubt in my mind that you and your innate ability to think on your feet are very well-fitted to the cover ID parameters. And furthermore, I am putting both my trust and that of Zootopia's in your canine paws. Don't mess this up, Wilde. And Hopps-" Bogo looked at Judy. "-if this goes wrong, you'll be sharing the blame with with him, are we clear?"

Judy saluted the chief. "Yes, sir," she said. "We won't let you down."

"Good," the chief replied. "That's what I wanted to hear." He clapped his hooves together. "Down to business.

"Officer Clawhauser will lead you to the new equipment you will require for this mission. In fact, I'll go so far as to say that you'll be using state-of-the-art technology to complete your objective. The brainiacs at the FDA have been working hard on these prototypes. And may I stress the word 'prototypes.' These devices have never been used in the field before. So don't completely rely on them throughout this entire process. You'll need to have good old ingenuity, lateral thinking, and plenty of natural instinct. And one more thing..."

Chief Bogo leaned over the desk and looked down at the both of them.

"Do whatever you have to do to get those two back. Years of desk work, years of being shot at, and I still haven't found a defense against widows, widowers, and fatherless and motherless children crying into my comforting arms. Wolford had a wife and son. I want him to be with them until he retires. And let me be very clear...Death doesn't count as retirement." The chief picked up a stack of papers from his desk and began reading, plopping down in his swivel chair as he did so. "Dismissed," he said.

Judy hopped off her chair and walked towards the closed door through which she had wanted to walk for a while. Suddenly, she saw a blur of blue and red, and the next thing she knew, Nick was holding the door open, gesturing for her to go through. She was impressed. Nick really cared for her. Perhaps she should tell him that she felt the same way about him...But no. Now was neither the time nor the place. For now, she gave him an appreciative smile and walked past the open door. "Thank you, Officer Wilde," she said, trying to sound casual.

"My pleasure, Officer Hopps," Nick replied with a sly smile.

Judy scanned the department. So many animals bustling about, all trying to get to one place or the other. Yet Clawhauser was nowhere to be found, even with his distinctive appearance. She turned to Nick, who was closing the door, and asked, "Where's Ben?"

Nick looked at the station for only a second and turned back to Judy. "No idea," he said. "Wow, you'd think a cheetah would be pretty hard to miss."

"Nick! Judy!" Judy heard Clawhauser's voice coming somewhere from the right, and she turned to see the large cat running to them with remarkable speed for an animal with such a physique.

"Ben!" Nick replied.

"It's good to see you guys are doing all right," said Clawhauser in a relieved voice. His face fell. "Especially after what happened to Wolford and McHorn. But hey, they've got ZPD's finest on the case." He gestured to Judy and Nick.

"We appreciate the support, Ben," Judy said. "We'll find them, I promise. Anything new as far as the victims of the crash go?"

"Yeah!" Clawhauser was now his boisterous self again. "They're all going to recover with no permanent injury! The doctors really worked their magic on them!"

Judy felt a wave of relief wash over her, and she couldn't herself from smiling.

"That is, by far, the _best_ news I've heard all week," Nick replied. "Thanks, Ben. I really needed that."

Clawhauser chuckled. "Oh, and you know what else you need? Some super-secret, top-of-the-line, experimental police equipment!" His voice started as a whisper, but got louder and more excited with each word.

"Ssh!" Nick held his paws out to try and keep Clawhauser under control. "Calm down, Ben. This is supposed to be a secret."

"Oh, right." Clawhauser put his finger to his lips and said "Ssh! Inside voice" quietly.

"The chief told us that you know where this stuff is supposed to be," Judy said in attempt to get the conversation going in the right direction again.

"Yes, I do indeed." Clawhauser beckoned with a finger. "Follow me."

* * *

Judy stared at the graffiti-covered brick wall in front of them. "You've got to be kidding me."

If she had doubted that Clawhauser knew what he was doing before, that was nothing compared to how she felt now. There was nothing in sight that could even remotely pass as advanced technology. Clawhauser, on the other paw, could barely contain his excitement; he was jumping up and down, clapping his paws, and giggling. Judy traded a glance with Nick, and she knew he was thinking the same thing. He turned around and looked at Clawhauser.

"Ben, what gives?" he said, with more than a little annoyance in his voice. "This isn't what we're looking for. Now sure, I've never actually _seen_ where the FDA operates, but I'm sure an alley is far from it!"

"Can I help you, Officers?" A familiar voice came from the street. Judy turned around to see-

"May!" Nick said. His tone was now much more uneasy and incoherent, and Judy looked at him in uncertainty. "Uh..nope! Just...uh...looking at a wall. Yeah. There's a chameleon who's been robbing people, and we thought...uh, that he was blending in with this wall." Judy watched Nick pound his fist against the wall twice with a smile that made it too obvious that he was hiding something. "Guess not!"

May gave a doubtful smile. "Okay then. I'll leave you to your duties."

Judy gave Nick an antagonized look, to which the fox blushed and shrugged, before calling out to May. "Actually, May, we momentarily need your help."

"Oh, yes. I forgot I said I would give you information on who might be behind this." May approached the three, and as she got closer, Judy felt Nick getting more and more uncomfortable. "What can you tell us?" she asked the vixen.

"Well, I was walking through the tunnel on my way to - Oh, yes, I walk through the tunnel when I have enough time to do so," she added after seeing the looks of surprise on Judy's face. "I realize it's not the safest way of transportation, but I enjoy it. Where was I? Ah, yes. I was walking, when suddenly an abnormally fast car came streaking down the road, followed by those two police officers. Then the first car crashed into the wall, and the next thing I knew, multiple accidents were happening one after the other! When I looked for the racer, I saw a flash of white behind one of the vehicles. It seemed to have a black line on its head and was dragging something along with it. Does this help at all?"

Judy couldn't understand why a white-skinned or white-furred animal would be dragging something off the road, but she heard Nick groan with copious dread. She looked at him, and all evidence indicated that his worst fear had come true. "Yes," he said. "Yes, it does. Thank you, May."

"We appreciate the help," Judy said, shaking May's paw. "Not many animals step up and assist the ZPD. We're glad to have citizens like you in the community."

"Oh, it's no problem at all." May continued on her path. "Let me know if I can be of further assistance!" She disappeared behind the brick wall, leaving Judy to wonder what Nick was so upset about. "So, Officer Wilde," she asked him, "what exactly does that mean to you?"

"There's only one white-furred animal I know with black stripes on his head." Nick's tone was bitter. "You saw him during the Emmett Otterton case; he's Catholic."

Judy squinted and put her paws on her hips, trying to remember such a character from their last adventure. "You'll have to be more specific."

"Who's the only person you know that I'm especially mortified of?"

Judy thought about it. "The chief?"

"The chief fits only one of the three criteria I've listed...he's Catholic. This guy...might have found us in a car."

And then it hit Judy in the face. "Mr. Big?"

"Yahtzee," Nick said grimly. "Well, not in the flesh. I'm talking about one of his henchmen - Kevin Kozlov. He was the one wearing a black getup." Nick looked down. "But that doesn't seem right...Big never attacks without provocation. He always waits for a reason to do something before he actually does it."

"Do you think Kozlov's acting on his own, Nick?" Clawhauser jumped in awkwardly.

"No, Kozlov's Russian; he always wants someone else to run the show for him. The question is, why would Big suddenly lash out at the ZPD?"

Judy was struck by a horrible thought. "Maybe he didn't. Wolford and McHorn might have double-crossed him or something."

Nick sighed. "Maybe. We'll have to find out." Nick turned to Clawhauser. "Ben, show us where we can get the stuff we need."

"Of course," Clawhauser replied eagerly. He scanned the wall with one finger, muttering to himself as he did so. Judy watched him as he worked; it reminded her of Nick's "son" looking in the window of the elephant shop when they first met. Finally, Clawhauser seemed to have found what he was looking for, because he had pushed one of the bricks further into the wall. Judy was stunned to see that the brick came back to its original place in the wall, but the wall itself began to rumble. It moved to the side slowly, making a large ruckus that no one else seemed to notice. Then it stopped, and rather abruptly. It looked like Clawhauser would not be able to fit. He turned to Judy and Nick and said, "This is as far as I go, guys. Have fun in there."

"Thanks, Clawhauser. We'll see you later."

As Clawhauser waddled off back to his squad car, Judy felt a pang of sympathy for him. He'd been wanting an important assignment for a while, and the chief kept passing them on to other officers. It reminded her of how she had discriminated against Nick when the night howler pandemic was on the rise. She wanted to take back her actions badly, but there was nothing she could do to stop it from happening; it was history. And now a fear sprouted in the back of her mind: What if Nick was still holding it over her head, if not verbally, then mentally? What if he thought she was still prejudiced against him? She was startled out of her paranoia by Nick clearing his throat.

"Ladies first, Officer Hopps," he said, with the same kind smile he always wore when he was trying to convey his feelings to her without actually talking. Judy returned the kindness and apprehensively approached what lay ahead behind the wall.

* * *

"Wow. These animals are working _hard_."

Judy could barely keep up with all of the bodies in the room. Clipboards and papers and scientific terminology were flying everywhere. Animals were fusing, testing, taking notes, observing products, or otherwise occupied with their respective work. None of the workers paid the pair of police officers any attention, which struck her as odd; they had, after all, just walked through a moving wall.

"Ugh. This reminds me of my days in college." Nick sounded unhappy about his nostalgic flashback.

Judy thought she had something lodged in her ear. "Wait a minute. _You_ went to college?"

Nick looked at her, giving her a fake pouting face. "Why do you hurt me?" he said in a mock-cute voice.

Judy rolled her eyes and elbowed him lightly in the stomach.

"Ow. You've got an arm." Nick started rubbing his side. "Yeah, I went to college. Computer science major, music minor. But I might or might not have gotten myself expelled in my third year."

"What happened?" was all she said.

"I, uh...my school had a good old-fashioned rivalry with another college in the Downtown District. So one day, I might possibly have hacked into their server system, used my recently acquired tech knowledge to put a photo of their principal's head on top of a Gazelle glamour shot, and sent it to all of the email accounts in their system disguised as an urgent message from one of the secretaries."

"That was you?" One of the workers, a bull, stopped his work and addressed Nick.

"One of the alumni from my rival college," he muttered to Judy. "I've seen him before at athletic competitions. Yeah, that was me," he called out. "You're not mad about that, are you?"

"Are you kidding me?" The bull broke into a grin. "That was _the_ funniest thing I've ever seen. There's not even a competition." He walked over to them, and Judy felt the urge to run away; she steeled her nerves and watched the new acquaintance shake Nick's paw.

"You must be Wally Grayson," the bull said admiringly. Judy didn't believe what she was hearing. Wally Grayson? Nick didn't look even remotely like a Wally. "Your little security breach was all the news for a while there. Hey-" The bull got serious. "You've got to tell me how you got past that proxy firewall. I'd been trying to crack that thing for the longest time."

"Well...What's your name?"

"Cameron. Jay Cameron."

"Well, Jay…" Nick lowered his voice, continuing the "Wally" facade. "I used a Trojan horse."

"No kidding!" Jay laughed. "I never would have thought of that!"

Nick looked at the back of his paw. "It wasn't easy. I had to try multiple versions before it worked, but it was worth it."

Judy was lost in all of the technological vocabulary. "Hey, guys? Super secret spy stuff?" She tried to get Nick to focus.

"Oh, right." Jay walked back to what he was working on, then seemed to correct himself. "Apologies. I didn't even introduce myself. That was rude of me." He extended his hoof. "Agent Jay Cameron."

"Officer Judy Hopps. It's a pleasure to meet you, Agent Cameron."

"Oh, the pleasure's all mine, Officer Hopps. As a thinker, I cherish every chance I get to meet one of the doers. Follow," he urged Judy; she heeded him, and Nick followed suit. Jay jerked his thumb at the fruits of his labor.

Judy was thoroughly bewildered. "Glasses?"

"Not just any glasses," Jay said, with an aura not unlike a salesman. "These babies are the next big thing in microscopic tech. Try them on." He grabbed them and handed them to Judy with a large, eager smile.

Hesitantly, Judy slipped them on. For a moment, they seemed like nothing but wire frames with pieces of glass in them. Just when she thought of taking them off and telling Jay they didn't work, a dazzling display of scrolling, shape-shifting green text danced across the lenses. Her mouth dropped open slightly, watching everything unfold.

"It's working! Great!" came Jay's voice, and Judy guessed he either saw the green text or he was giving instructions based on her facial cues. "Now look at me," he instructed.

Judy turned to look at him. A green circle began to dart around Jay's face, followed around by text that read "Analyzing…" A picture of Jay, most likely his driver's license or some other legally required photo, popped up, hovering over a slew of personal information about the bull.

"Has it recognized me?" he asked.

"Wow," Judy said, duly impressed. "You're an asthmatic?" She stopped herself too late. "Sorry! I didn't mean to embarrass you or anything."

"Nah, that's fine. _Everyone_ here has some kind of special weakness that makes them unique. Heck, if you can get chocolate within twenty-five feet of any canine subspecies in here, I will personally buy you a week's worth of dinner. Say, Wally..." He turned to the fox, who seemed much more cautious of the other animals around him. "You're a _canis_ subspecies, right?"

" _Vulpes vulpes_ ," Nick said, eyes darting around nervously. "I'm sorry, did you say there was chocolate around here?"

"Oh, no, absolutely not," Jay chuckled, waving a dismissive hoof. "Safety protocol."

Judy had no idea why Nick had gotten so paranoid of a harmless snack. "Why can't you eat chocolate, _Wally_?" she said, trying to convey her irritation through her eyes.

Nick turned to her and gave her a sheepish "I'm sorry" look. "Well, technically, I can eat anything. In fact, any animal can eat anything. It's just a matter of whether or not that thing proves to be fatal to the animal. In my case, chocolate doesn't agree with me because the _canis_ species has an especially slow metabolism when it comes to digesting the theobromine in chocolate. Too much theobromine enters my system at once, and you have a dead Wally. Mr. Big, for example, tried to feed me chocolate after the skunk butt rug incident."

"I'm sorry," Jay said, giving a confused laugh. "The _what_ incident?"

"It doesn't matter," Judy replied quickly; she knew Nick didn't want to be reminded of the whole fiasco.

"Now see what you can get off of Wally here," Jay instructed.

"My pleasure," Judy obeyed, looking at Nick. It was time to find out who he really was. The glasses went to work, darting about Nick's facial features until a photo of him popped up. Judy stopped, appalled. It was Nick's face, but it said his name was Earl Ridgeton, a children's storybook writer. Her facial expressions must have shown her anger, because Jay said, "Is there something wrong, Officer Hopps?"

Quickly, Judy tried to cover it up; Nick might deserve having his deception exposed, but now was neither the time nor the place. They had a mission to complete. "It's just that Wally never told me the thing that most irritates him is carrot farmers." This was false; according to the glasses, the thing that irritated Nick most was discrimination against predators. Judy had lied in order to keep their cover intact.

Nick's face fell with fear and embarrassment. "Bad encounter with a couple of them when I was a kit. It has nothing to do with you or your family, Officer Hopps."

"Well, never mind who has the most humiliating deepest, darkest secret and who doesn't." Jay lumbered on, making a path for a pair of new gadgets. They were un-identical in size; Judy assumed they were for both her and Nick. They seemed skeletal in appearance, but one sported a head cage shaped like the skull of a fox, the other shaped like a rabbit's. Judy felt a rush of adrenaline in her veins; these things were pretty cool-looking. Jay stopped to the side of the metal skeletons and bowed overdramatically. "Gentleman, lady, may I present to you the Futuristic Units of Retinal Reflection/Imitation Engineering."

"F.U.R.R.I.E.s?" Nick's tone of voice sounded disappointed. "Really?"

"Hey," Jay chuckled, "You come up with clever acronyms that sound good, and I'll eat my multi-tool pouch. Fried. With a little bit of powdered sugar."

"Fair enough. How do they work?"

"Here's the kicker, Officer Grayson." Jay paused, contained excitement leaking from his face as he said, "Wait for iiiiit…." operatically.

"They interface with those glasses." He pointed to Judy's new accessory. "Milady, if you would be so kind as to step into your respective FURRIE."

Judy, hesitantly, slipped her right paw into the cuff on the right "arm" of the skeleton, then did the same with her left. From there, she stepped into the cuffs on the robot's legs and poked her head into the cage. With no warning, the entire device constricted her limbs for a brief moment in which she felt as if she were going to lose her paws, then contracted, leaving her free to move within the FURRIE. As it moved with her, the text on the glasses said, "FURRIE found, synchronize?"

"Say 'yes," Jay instructed. "Those glasses are coded to your voice. Only you can use them effectively."

"Okay," Judy acknowledged. "Yes," she said, more forcefully. The glasses accepted the command and now read, "Initializing...Select target for reflection."

"Is it asking you for a target?" Jay asked.

"Yes," she replied.

"Good. Now look at Wally here."

Judy did as instructed, looking at Nick. As the glasses began their work again, Judy tried to guess what they might be doing. Futuristic Unit of...what was that acronym? Nick's and Jay's yells of disgust jerked her out of her thoughts. "Cover up, Carrots!" Nick yelled. "For the love of God, cover up!"

Judy didn't know what was happening. "What?" It was then that she realized that she could see a red muzzle in place of her own nose. She looked down and found that she was in Nick's naked fox body. She, too, cried out and immediately swished her now long, bushy tail in front of her lower torso. "You never told me -" she began to say, surprised to hear Nick's voice coming out of her mouth.

"Well, how was I supposed to know that they were giving you the birthday suit template?" Nick cried out, now turning around to gander at the FURRIE's genius since Judy now kept her sensitive areas from view. "I'm the last person they'd - Oh, wow," he added, his eyes wide with admiration as he stared at what Judy assumed was an embarrassed and timid clone of himself that was hiding his shame. "That's me. Jay, how did you do that?"

"Little bit of intuition, little bit of concept art, and way too much overtime," Jay said, frowning. "I've had more Starfish coffee than I can remember since I started these little beauties. But that's odd...The FURRIE should theoretically mirror Wally's clothes, as well." He rubbed his chin with his hoof, deep in thought. "Maybe I have to broaden the sensors to non-organic material, as well. Oh, and it's completely waterproof. I've checked the system at least nine times. It's definitely waterproof. 100% percent money-back guarantee.

"All right, you can step out now. All you've got to do is say, 'Cut ties.'"

"Cut ties," Judy said, and her limbs were immediately released from the machine, leaving her to freely exit. She checked her body to find that she no longer resembled Nick; she was herself again.

"Well, that's a relief," Nick said, unable to hide the fact that he was a bit embarrassed about the whole fiasco. "So you say you can do clothes now?"

"Yeah," Jay said. "Probably just need to work on the edge detection algorithm. But, of course -" He looked at Nick. "-you probably already knew that, didn't you, Wally?"

Nick shrugged his shoulders. "I thought it might have been something like that. I assume that we can only disguise ourselves as an animal larger than or equal to our own size?"

"You would be correct. Theoretically, the FURRIE can mimic anything, but if you're trying to impersonate a guinea pig, it would have to stretch the proportions to such a ridiculous size that - and no offense meant by this, Wally - you'd stick out like a fox in a henhouse. Almost forgot to mention-" Jay gently pulled the left wrist of Judy's FURRIE up to show them a button on the outside of the cuff where one might expect to find a watch. "This button also deactivates your FURRIE. Just push it and you're yourself again."

Nick looked at Judy, who had been expecting some limitations to the machine's capabilities. "I think you'll have an easier time than me, Carrots. Your potential pallet's bigger."

Judy folded her arms. "Well, I highly doubt we're going to run into any one-foot-tall polar bears. What about N-Wally's glasses?" She had almost ruined Nick's illusion and blown his cover, which wouldn't have improved his relationship with Jay at all.

"Well, they're right -" Jay started to look at his workbench, but his face fell in anxiety. He hastily rummaged through the papers, tools, and other assorted work instruments. "No, no, no," he kept repeating. "I swear I left them _right_ here." His anxiety was slowly turning to fear. "Where did they go?"

Judy's heart was gripped with fear. If Nick couldn't blend in, he'd be dead as soon as they started their investigation. She looked over at him and was surprised to see, instead of his "something wrong is happening" face, a mischievous look that only a fox could wear. He smiled craftily at Judy, who was now confused, and held up his paw, twirling the glasses around his fingers. He raised his eyebrows twice in an attempt to complete his superiority complex, then called out to the paranoid bull. "Jay."

Jay turned around, and he gave a look of extreme relief. "You found them! How did-"

"I'm hyper observant," Nick said, inspecting his one of his claws and blowing on it. "I noticed them when we were first walking over here and swiped them when Judy put me on full frontal display."

"That's just amazing," Jay laughed. "You're just full of surprises, isn't he, Officer Hopps?"

"Yes, he is," she did, giving Nick an agitated look. " _Many_ surprises."

Nick clearly didn't like this remark, and began to change the subject. "Anything else we get to use, Jay?" Judy heard him add a tone of curiosity, so as not to sound ungrateful.

Jay snapped his fingers. "Ah ha. Indeed there is. I almost forgot." He took a pen from his workman's overalls, put it up to his mouth and said, "This pen allows you to record and play back any audio you want. Handy if you need to use someone's words against them." He clicked the end of the pen, and his voice emanated from the fake writing utensil. _"This pen allows you to record and play back any audio you want. Handy if you need to use someone's words against them."_

Judy brought out her carrot pen from her ZPD utility belt and spoke. "We've already got one of those." She clicked the playback button. _"We've already got one of those."_

"Oh, great!" Jay handed the pen to Nick. "Covering two proverbial bases at once. Awesome." He dug through another pocket in his overalls and pulled out a metal circle with two leg-looking attachments and a small red button on top of it. "This is a laser cutter. Simply extend the appendages to the diameter of the hole you want to make, press the red button, and you've got a new door to walk through. Extremely helpful for quick getaways and stealthy breaches." He shook it a couple of times. "Also completely waterproof."

Judy was amazed by the bull's ingenuity. "Wow, Jay, I'm really impressed. How long did it take you to do all this?"

"Oh, all of this was far from my work." Jay waved his hand dismissively. "Sure, I was part of the group that worked on the project, but there's no way I could have possibly done everything that needed to be done on my own in such a short space of time." He had an air of finality to him. "Well, that's about all we have for you today, kids. Make sure to take everything with you now; it'd be a shame to leave all of this behind. We have suitcases for your ease of mind. Much easier to transport the FURRIEs that way, at least it will be when I recalibrate them to mirror clothes. For now, I'm keeping them to work out the bugs you just witnessed. The rest you can fit in your pants pockets…and your shirt pockets, if you've got 'em." He gave a courteous bow, first to Judy, then Nick. "Milady, Mr. Grayson."

Nick gave Jay a cocky two-fingered salute. "Agent Cameron."

Judy took her police hat off of her head and said, "Agent Cameron."

"Have fun. And, guys -" Jay grabbed Nick's arm. "When you find whoever did this, make sure they know I had a hoof in this."

"Will do, Jay," Nick said. "We appreciate the peace offerings."

"Of course," Jay replied. "No problem. Now get packing. You have a criminal to catch."


	3. Judy Drinks Shots with a Polar Bear

Judy lay on her bed looking up at the ceiling, thinking, reminiscing. The rhythms of the songs on Gazelle's new album reverberated through her ears, putting her into an almost trance-like state, and the serenity of the night further deepened her feeling of peacefulness. She stared at the blank wall above her, but processed nothing; her mind was busy painting vivid memories of her first exposure to Zootopia across the canvas of her eyes. She remembered the ecstatic joy and wonder she had first been filled with when she saw the towering buildings from the train, the crisp smells bombarding her small, twitching nose, the hustle and bustle of workers, mothers, and children, each following a line that was visible to them and them alone. She remembered slapping a $20 bill on the counter of Jumbeaux's Café, telling Nick's son (who, she would later find out, was actually Finnick in disguise) that he could be anything he wanted to be, and looking into Nick's grateful eyes as he thanked her for her courtesy.

As Gazelle leaped into the chorus, Judy's mind stopped on that face, Nick's allegedly grateful face. She wanted more than anything to believe that he was truly appreciative of her willingness to pick up his tab. That weary smile was, or so Judy thought, one only a true parent could wear. His eyes had given an illusion of self-disappointment, relief, and sleep deprivation rolled into one thankful gaze. Was it really Nick's own smile? Maybe he really did feel as if he owed a debt to Judy for her sacrifice. He had most likely had trouble with trustworthiness in the past, simply because he was a natural predator. After all, Judy knew that Zootopia was far from the harmonious, peaceful city she once thought it was. But no...deception was second nature to a fox. They know how to exploit other animals into doing what they wanedt. They lied, they manipulated, they broke their target's will to resist through charm and subconscious intimidation, and then they left the victim to suffer the consequences, reaping all of the benefits. Nick wasn't really happy that someone was trusting him. He had just wanted her to think that so she would suffer a personal loss and he would get a free jumbo pop to melt down and sell for a profit. He was an opportunist, and he would never change.

But now a new fear shook Judy out of her prejudice: She was falling into the lie, and embracing it wholeheartedly. Old memories of her father's warnings against foxes came back: "They always have an angle" or "Foxes don't care about anyone other than themselves." She had hated him for saying such things, and the thought of her buying into those lies was enough to start the tears. She was turning into the one thing she had resented her entire life, and she couldn't stop herself from distrusting Nick. Why did he have to confuse her so much? She had lost count of how many times he had put on a mask and pretended to be someone he wasn't. With a track record like that, how could she know who Nicholas P. Wilde truly was? She hated the lies and the guilt and the doubt and the second-guessing. Why couldn't Nick just pick an identity and stick with it? Gazelle was doing nothing to help her. With a soft sob, Judy ripped the earbuds out of her ears and threw the music player on her firm mattress. She sat up, brought her face to her knees, and weeped silently. It was too much to process now; her mission had barely begun and she couldn't even trust her own partner. If this was how she was going to be throughout the entire mission…

Her thoughts were interrupted by the door opening. "Hey, Carrots," Nick said in an enthusiastic voice. "It's time to -" He stopped, Judy assumed, when he saw her there. His tone immediately became softer. "Carrots, what's wrong?"

Judy looked up at him, lower lip trembling like a meerkat in the snow. Nick had a concerned look on his face, but she thought she saw the slightest hint of earnest in his caring eyes and sympathetic frown as he put down the three suitcases he was carrying. She buried her face back into her knees and began to cry again.

"Hey," Nick said, even softer. Judy felt him sit down on the bed next to her. As she felt his hand rest gently on her shoulder, the tears flowed freely. Without giving it another thought, she threw herself into Nick's unready arms, grabbed him tightly about the stomach, and tried to talk through both her sobs and Nick's fur. "Wh-who are y-you, r-really?"

She felt Nick's chest rise and fall dramatically; he had taken a deep breath. "Judy, look at me." His tone was still soft and tender.

Judy forced herself to look into his eyes. There were no masks that he could wear, no lies to hide behind. Whatever he was about to say, somehow, she knew it would be genuine.

"I'm just a fox who's trying to look after the rabbit he cares about. If there's one thing I know, it's that I will do whatever I have to do to make sure the love of my life is safe." He kissed her forehead. "There's nothing I won't do to keep you from harm."

Judy could feel the sadness ebbing away. With one final sniffle, she held her head up and looked at Nick, gratefully, through her tear-filled eyes. His smile was kind.

"There's my dumb bunny," he said as he squeezed her affectionately.

Judy laughed and cried at the same time as she play-slapped his shoulder. "Oh, quiet, you."

Nick chuckled contentedly; Judy relaxed even more, burying herself deeper into Nick's arms, letting every fiber of her being relieve itself of all the sadness and wrong it had endured throughout the day. She felt Nick pull tighter around her back for just a moment, then let go of her. Judy returned the gesture, and she looked deeply into his eyes, trying to catch a glimpse of the selfless soul that resided inside them. Nick mimicked her gaze for a fleeting second, and proceeded to leap up.

"Well," he sighed quickly, "Time to get to work, I suppose."

Judy felt a bit underwhelmed, but Nick was right; no one else was going to help Wolford and McHorn. She followed suit, getting up off her bed and grabbing the assorted FDA gadgets from her desk. "So the FURRIEs are operational?"

"Yep," Nick replied cheerfully. "They reflect clothes now. Oh, and Jay said he also left out the voice modifier in the original OS for my suit, so now I can actually effectively imitate whatever I want. And he modified it so that we can access a database of animals we might need to impersonate. Clothes included." He held up the bunny-sized suitcase. "Here's yours."

Judy got a bit excited. Being able to pose as whatever they needed to would hopefully be as fun as it sounded. "Thanks, Nick," she said as he handed it to her.

"No problem," Nick replied. "So where do we start, Carrots?"

Judy's abnormally receptive ears detected a trace of amusement in his voice, indicating the possibility he already knew the answer and was just testing her as if they were in high school studying for an exam. She thought for a few seconds, then she remembered something that Wolford had said to Nick before he disappeared:

" _Make it fifty and you've got a deal."_

"He had a gambling problem!"

"And bingo!" Nick said, pointing at Judy enthusiastically. "He upped the ante on my bet without hesitation. If he was chomping at the bit to maximize profits in a potentially lethal race, why wouldn't he start betting on non-lethal games?"

"Which means he would have spent time down at the casino!" Judy finished Nick's thought for him.

"I'd be willing to bet that's where we should start. Pun intended," he added quickly.

Judy got the joke, and she rolled her eyes and groaned with a smile on her face. "So how are we getting into the casino? I don't know about you, but I'm not exactly itching to dig into my piggy bank and potentially lose money."

"First off, I'm sure the pig appreciates that," Nick replied. "Secondly, I told Bogo what we were going to do, and he pulled a favor with Invertebrate Affairs. We have ten thousand smackers to play around with."

Judy's mouth dropped. "Ten thousand dollars?" Her first feeling was pure amazement that Nick was able to get that much cash from a government agency by just asking. Then she suddenly became of a stricter mindset: This wasn't some vacation. They had to find out what had happened to Wolford and McHorn. "Of course, we're not going to use it all," she said sternly.

Nick waved his hand cockily. "Pfft. I've got a system, Carrots. It's all at the blackjack table."

"Our first order of business is to figure out who Wolford could normally have been seen with in the casino, Nick. I think if we grease the bartender's paws, he could tell us where Wolford went."

"You're no fun, Carrots." Nick put one of the remaining suitcases on the desk and popped it open. Judy watched the fortune present itself. Stacks of money emanated from the case. It was like winning a lottery. She heard Nick chuckle in a way that seemed to say "I knew you couldn't resist."

"Come on," he said in a tempting voice. "You can't tell me you're at least a _little_ bit anxious to use this stuff."

Judy sighed; he was right, and they both knew it. "Fine. You win." She closed the case, grabbed it, and waited for Nick to pick up the third case. "Now, let's go figure out what happened to those two."

* * *

As the doors opened to the Downtown Casino, Judy was taken aback by a feeling of overwhelming wonder, much like her reaction when she got her first glimpse of Zootopia. She felt a sharp pain in her side; Nick had elbowed her.

"Close your mouth," he said in a gruff voice that had a Boston drawl to it. "You're ruining the illusion. We're supposed to be mobsters, remember?"

"Oh, right," Judy replied in an equally gruff voice, but with a Russian accent. "This is going to take some getting used to."

"No kidding. I'm twice as big as I normally am."

"Not because of me, I hope," Judy replied, trying to get Nick to understand what she was talking about.

"Niiice," Nick said sarcastically. "So it's going to be _that_ kind of date, then?"

"Not much of a date if we're only here on police business."

"Fair enough. You go try the bartender." He gave Judy a pawful of bills. "I'm going to cash in ten thousand for the tables."

"Where's the bar?" Judy asked, a bit panicked.

Nick sighed. "Over there, to the right. The tall panther with the ear piercing behind the counter. He's your best chance at getting information. And, remember -" He looked her in the eye to indicate that his words would be of utmost importance. "Speak broken English. It completes the image."

"But what if I choke and don't know what to say?" she whispered so as not to arouse suspicion.

"Then everyone will think that you're having trouble remembering what you learned in English class. Now go on, Carrots. Wolford and McHorn are counting on us."

Judy made a beeline for the panther behind the bar, occasionally moving to the left or right to avoid running into gamblers. At one point, she was stopped by a floor clerk offering glasses of fermented palm nectar, to which she refused with a gruff Russian "Not my drink, thanks." She continued on her way to the bar and, upon arrival, sat down at one of the empty stools. It was peculiar, impersonating a lawbreaker. Not only peculiar, but ironic. The reason she had come to Zootopia in the first place was to stop crime, not embrace it. Yet here she was, posing as a nondescript Russian polar bear who looked like part of Mr. Big's mafia. The panther noticed her waiting there and said, "What can I get for you, sir?"

Judy looked at him in surprise before remembering her hologram was male; she quickly covered it up by saying, "Strongest drink you have" with a thick accent.

The panther nodded and grabbed a bottle labeled "ROOT BEER XXX." Judy's stomach turned over; there was practically no way she could stomach this legendary "nectar of the gods" that the other cops at the ZPD talked so much about when they were off duty. It had always been aged for at least two decades, bringing out as much yeast product in the drink as possible. Judy knew, from past experiences, that she couldn't handle this stuff; what had she gotten herself into? The bartender had finished preparing the drink, and brought her a shot glass full of the foaming intoxicant. She looked at him, trying to cover up her fear with a brief, solemn glance. She raised her glass, and said "Bottoms up," but, for whatever reason, her polar bear self muttered, " _Na Zdorovie._ " Judy tried her best not to tremble at the hand as she tilted her head back, and swallowed it in one gulp. She was expecting to spit it out and blow her cover; somehow, this was not the case at all. She merely felt a tingling sensation in her throat and felt compelled to say, "Good drink."

"Glad you like it," the panther smiled, drying a glass with a towel. "Another?"

"No, thank you, my friend," Judy said, completely surprised. Whatever had happened, Jay had most likely forgotten to mention - after all, he was definitely working hard enough that he had to forget something sooner or later. She didn't know the exact reason for this sudden change in her drinking ability, but her best guess was that she could gain some of the attributes of whoever she was impersonating at a given time. With this confidence-improving thought in her head, she looked around, then beckoned for him to come closer. The panther, somewhat hesitant, did as she asked, turning his head to better hear her. Judy waited to think of the right way to ask the question.

"I was wondering about massive crash accident in tunnel yesterday." She slipped a $50 bill on the counter between them as motivation for the panther; the latter looked at it briefly, checked that no one was watching, and took the money.

"What do you want to know?" he whispered.

"Well, old friend of mine - wolf-dog - was officer in yesterday's accident," Judy explained. She was surprised how naturally broken English came to her; it was as if she already knew how to play dumb. Then she remembered that the FURRIE was still on, and she could only assume it was the cause of her new personality. "He had gambling problem. Loved this place, this...Downtown Casino. Now, I have heard that police squad car and both officers have been gone missing. My question for you is do you know of person who possibly may have wanted to kill him or otherwise hurt him?"

The panther suddenly became a bit more shifty, and his eyes gave a small whiff of nervousness.

"I…" he said hesitantly. "I _might_ be of some use in that area...if you were to, say...introduce me to Ham Lincoln again."

Judy caught the hint. She pulled another $50 bill from the wad and set it on top of the counter. The panther looked down at the smiling pig whose name, Ham Lincoln, was printed on the legal tender. He took it, folded it, and put it back in his pocket.

"I know the guy you're talking about," he said, leaning on the bar. "About my height, well-built, sharp sense of smell?"

"That is the one," Judy confirmed.

"Well, your friend, unfortunately, owed a lot of money to the local crime boss, Mr. Big. Now, this doesn't sound like something he'd do normally, but your friend was really in debt to Big, and I mean _really_ in debt. We're talking in the hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of debt. He liked to take loans from him, say 'I'll pay you back later with interest,' then lose five figures a night at the roulette table. I'm sorry to say this, but I think Mr. Big finally got fed up with your friend's excuses and decided to pull the plug."

"How do you know my friend was in debt?" Judy asked.

"It was all he could talk about when he came over here for a drink. Too many times had I seen him with that depressed look on his muzzle. He'd plop down in any old seat, order the same thing you did, - birds of a feather, metaphorically speaking - then he'd order it again, and again, and again, and again. It was hard for him to stop drinking, and once he was intoxicated enough, it was too easy to get him to talk about his money problems."

"Do you think my friend would have thought about doing an irrational thing to give Big boss his cash-monies?"

The panther threw his arms in the air with a face that clearly showed his cluelessness. "You tell me, pal. He's your friend. Between the two of us, you're the only one who's known him while he's been sober."

Judy took a minute to process what had just happened; that root beer shot had gone to her head faster than she thought it would. So Mr. Big might just be behind this after all. Wolford was definitely not on Big's "hug it out and say it's all good" list; that shrew wouldn't just let such a large load of loot disappear under his hypersensitive olfactory sensor. Mr. Big, or someone affiliated with him, had taken Wolford and McHorn hostage. "Many thanks, my friend," she said to the bartender.

"No problem, sir. Are you sure you wouldn't like another shot of root beer?"

"I am fairly certain, good man."

The panther chuckled understandingly. "Fine by me." He went back to his duties, wiping down the bar as he went to serve more customers.

Judy got off the bar stool she had been sitting on and began to look for Nick when she realized that he didn't look like a fox anymore, he looked like a polar bear. His words came back to her: _"It's all at the blackjack table."_ But which one was the blackjack table? She looked for any sign of Nick's white, fuzzy head poking out among the crowd of gambling animals. She listened for his voice, but the upbeat jazz music and the rabble of slot machine noises and overlapping conversations weren't going to let her concentrate. Getting a bit impatient - though she didn't know why, because she was normally a very tolerant bunny - she sped up her walking pace, trying to get a bead on Nick. There were white-furred animals everywhere - wolves, zebras, Siberian tigers, but no polar bears could be found in the mix. But wait...She remembered seeing a white animal at a table to the left of the bar. It could have been a polar bear. She knew it was worth checking out. Her legs enabled her to move much faster than the normally could; it was probably the FURRIE giving her a helping hand again. Past the bar she walked, over to the table where she had seen the speck of white. Indeed, whoever it was was still at the table, and they were doing very well. She walked around to the animal's side to see that it was indeed Nick. She watched him play with, to her surprise, moderate curiosity. Nick looked over, saw that she was waiting for him, and turned to the dealer, who was an antelope.

"All righty, then," he said in his Boston accent. "I'll play one more hand, and then I should probably take off."

"Fair enough," the dealer replied through his cigar. He shuffled the cards. "Buy-in's a thousand." Nick responded by throwing in two chips, which Judy assumed to be two five-hundred dollar chips. The dealer did the same and dealt two cards to both himself and Nick. Nick looked at the cards he had, and with a highly sophisticated poker face, said, "Hit me." Judy recognized this as the call for another card, to which the dealer dealt him another card, face down. Nick looked at his cards again. "I'll stay." He flipped his cards over to show an eight, a two, and an ace. Twenty-one. The dealer nodded approvingly before flipping his cards over. "A king and a nine," he said. He dealt himself another card, face up this time. A three.

"House busts," the dealer said. "You win."

"Mighty kind of ya, pal," Nick replied, extending his hand. The dealer shook it earnestly. "Well played," he congratulated Nick. "Come back any time."

Judy waited for Nick to pick up his chips - she estimated twenty-five in all, and not one was less than five hundred dollars' worth - and grab the case with their money. As he approached her, still putting chips in his pocket, she was overcome with a feeling of amazement. "How did you get that much money in such a short time? In the time it took me to get a shot, figure out what happened to Wolford and McHorn, and find you, you've gotten at least -" she did the math in her head (bunnies were good at multiplying, after all) - "twelve and a half thousand dollars by asking for cards!"

"Keep your voice down," he said. "We're unexcitable polar bears, remember? And second off, ten thousand dollars' worth of those chips were from our original budget. I've played three games and won six thousand and fifty extra. If Bogo lets us, I'm going to keep it for a special something I have planned later."

"What is it?" Judy asked suspiciously.

"Come on, now, Carrots, if I told you, where would the fun be in that?" He asked as they reached the chip exchange. "Hello," he said pleasantly to the hippopotamus behind the counter.

"Hello," she replied, equally as pleasant.

"I'd like to cash these in, please," Nick said, placing his chips on the counter. The hippo counted them up and said, "Well, you have sixteen thousand and fifty dollars in chips here. Your money will be just a minute." She placed Nick's winnings neatly in a chip storage unit, then took three stacks of five thousand dollars, counted out ten $100 bills and put a $50 bill on the counter before putting it all in a nice, straight pile and handing it to Nick, who accepted it gratefully.

"Many thanks," he said.

"Absolutely, sir," the hippo replied. "Come back any time."

Judy watched Nick fold the money and put it in his pocket. He had just earned, in three minutes, what it would have taken him weeks to make pulling one of his hustles. She hoped he could now realize how wrong he was when he thought if the world was always going to see a fox as untrustworthy, then there was no reason to try and prove them wrong. If only he had known back then that there was always a chance at redemption, that he could find everything he needed to change himself just by looking in the mirror, he might never have fallen into crime as a way of life. As they exited the casino and the cold wind bit Judy's wet nose, she felt that intense, burning feeling inside of her, the feeling that said, Just tell him you love him, Hopps. What harm is there in letting him know?

Okay. You win, she told the voice. I'll tell him.

"So, Carrots, have you figured out why Bogo didn't send us in with cover IDs yet?"

Nick shook her thoughts away, and she felt a bit of resentment towards him. Sure, it wasn't his fault; after all, he was hyper observant, not psychic, but he kept her from telling him something he had been wanting to hear ever since they had become partners on the force. Those three little words that had meant so much to so many over the centuries: "I love you." Still a bit angered over the fact that she hadn't been able to tell Nick she loved him, Judy thought about it. Then it clicked.

"The FURRIEs provide cover IDs for us."

"Exactly," Nick said as they climbed back into his own personal car. "He said the people in Invertebrate Affairs wanted to see how a fox talks his way into being trusted by someone he's just met. They gave us free will in choosing who we're going to pose as, but they still get to see how I work. It's crafty, I'll give them that. They're trying to beat me at my own game." Judy got in and closed the car door.

"So where to from here?" Nick asked her, driving down the road.

Judy pressed the button on her FURRIE, ending the projected Russian bear. Normally, she wouldn't risk doing such a thing in daylight, but Nick's windows were tinted black, ensuring that no one could see what was happening in the cabin. "The bartender said that Wolford owed Mr. Big hundreds of thousands of dollars. Man…" she added. "It feels so good to talk in my own voice again."

"So Mr. Big is most likely the cause of their disappearance," Nick confirmed.

"It's where I'd start, Officer Wilde."

Nick sighed wearily. "Don't call me 'Officer.' Please."

"Sorry." Judy watched Nick press the button on his FURRIE's wrist and revert back to his normal appearance. "So where to from here?"

"Well, I'm not going anywhere near Mr. Big's residence this time of day. Security will be abnormally tight right now. I say we go home, take a long-overdue sleep, and get into Big's mansion in the morning."

"Does anyone know where Mr. Big's mansion actually is?"

Nick looked at her. "Everyone who knows about Mr. Big knows where his mansion actually is. They drove us there without blindfolds. He does it because he knows that no one's crazy enough to try and sneak in. Except us."

Judy thought about it. How were they going to get into the mansion without raising any bells? Nick seemed to know that she was working on a plan, because he said, "I can hear the gears turning in that bunny brain of yours."

"Well, how are we going to get to Mr. Big and not arouse suspicion?"

"Simple. Remember Kozlov? The polar bear that ended up dragging Wolford and McHorn off-scene?"

"Yes…" Judy was still not following.

"I did some research on him. It turns out his father's in the hospital due to a serious cardiac arrest two months ago in Savanna Central that was caused by overheating and dehydration. Now, he passed this afternoon, but I was able to delay the doctors from notifying Kozlov. Once they heard that there was an official police investigation concerning the allegedly illegal actions of the deceased's son, they were extremely cooperative. So, here's my plan -" Nick said, still driving down the road. "- We use the same FURRIE disguises we just utilized tonight to lure Kozlov away from the group, pretending that we want to read him his father's will privately. Now, Mr. Big places a very heavy value on family, so he'll most likely insist on being a witness; after all, if he's hesitant about being the little guy, he'll feel nice and safe if he takes another bodyguard with him. So at most, we have two real threats to take out. I've got two guns with knockout-gas rounds that we can use to eliminate them. I'll take care of them while you grab Big, then we go from there. I've got a rough draft of the rest of the plan in my head, but I'll refine it as we go on."

"Why?" Judy inquired of him, eager to know what was going on in his canine head. "What's the rest of the plan?"

"Well, we set up an interrogation that makes it seem like he's been targeted by a new criminal who just entered town, get him to divulge the locations of Wolford and McHorn, then go from there. Easy." His paw moved to the radio button, and as he pressed it, a brilliantly flowing melody came from the car. A male voice accompanied by a piano, cymbals, violins and timpani drums produced an epic of a poet who was observing the inability of animals to truly communicate with other animals. It gave Judy chills and caused tears to well up in her eyes. It was such a beautiful symphony of song that she couldn't stop herself; a silent teardrop of pure awe rolled down her cheek. She closed her eyes, and suddenly she heard Nick singing along with the animal in the song. She could tell he had memorized the lyrics and the vocalist's articulation, because it sounded almost as if he was the original artist, singing along to one of his many songs that just happened to be on the radio. She listened to Nick's serenading:

 _And in the naked light I saw_

 _Ten thousand people, maybe more_

 _People talking without speaking_

 _People hearing without listening_

 _People writing songs_

 _That voices never shared_

 _And no one dare_

 _Disturb the sound of silence_

She was startled to hear Nick choke on the last line, and she looked over to see tears pouring down his face past his trembling lips. Yet he kept singing with the beautiful tone he had assumed since he had begun, albeit with a shaky voice. It was a thing most unheard of, to see a grown fox crying over a song about silent animals. And Nick thought rabbits were emotional… She let his singing carry her soul for the rest of the song, but the last verse saw Nick lose his composure.

 _And the sign said_

" _The words of the prophets_

 _Are written on the subway walls_

 _And tenement halls"_

 _And whispered in the sound_

 _Of silence_

As Nick's voice cracked with sorrow as he sang "of silence," Judy felt the car pull over and come to a stop. Without warning, Nick buried his face in his hands and sobbed uncontrollably as the violins gave their last sustained note. Judy turned the radio off and asked him, "Nick, what's wrong?"

Nick couldn't respond; he was still unable to stop his crying. Then he threw himself into Judy's arms, wrapping her about the waist and moistening her shoulder with salty tears. Judy's first instinct, and the one she followed, was to hug Nick back. She placed her right hand on the back of his elongated head and caressed the length of his spine lovingly, reassuringly. She was finding it difficult not to cry, herself. Then she heard Nick blubbering through his sobs.

"I...I...I'm...sorry," he apologized, seemingly forcing himself to look at her. "I...It's just…" He sniffled and seemed to regain some of his moxie. "When-whenever I hear this song, I...I remember...I remember everything that ever went wrong in my life. College expulsion, discrimination against predators…" A fresh tear rolled down his cheek. "...Cub Scouts…." He stifled a sob. "I've been through so many bad times in my life. What with being an ex-criminal and the one kid who was always made fun of because of something about me that I could never change…"

Judy took the opportunity to bring him closer to her. In a strange way, comforting him made her feel at peace, like how she imagined a mother would feel while comforting her young. She listened, truly listened, to what Nick was telling her; she might never get him to open up like this again. It was like watching a time-lapse of a flower blossoming.

"They don't know how it feels to be the outcast for their entire lives. They've never known the raw end of prejudice. They haven't had to fight for anything. They always got what they wanted. They were never rejected, never renounced by the ones they called friends." Nick started to cry again. "Th-they always looked down on me. They said, 'You can't do it, Wilde. Zootopia tells you "Anyone can be anything," but you can't. You have to be who you are: a predator.' They told me I'd n-never amount to anything."

Judy had never felt the need to defend Nick burn so passionately in her heart. "Listen to me, Nick," she told him with an authoritative tone. "They'll stop at nothing to tear you down because they know that you _can_ , Nick, but they want to bully you into becoming too afraid to do anything. They're scared of your potential, Nick. They want you to think that you can't be anything amazing because they're mortified of your talents."

Nick looked taken aback by Judy's aggressive method. Judy didn't care, because she was on a roll.

"Whoever bullied you lacked _vision_ , Nick. Instead of cooperating with you so they could be great, they looked at you as a threat to their well-being. They tell you you can't be special. They say, 'There's a million of us like you. What makes you any better than the rest of us?' You know what makes you different from the rest of them, Nick?"

"I'm a predator?" Nick guessed, choking up again.

"Wrong." Judy said it as forcibly as she could. "Motivation. Dedication. Vision. Your life is your _own_ life. _You_ are what makes Nicholas P. Wilde. _You_ give him character. Are you going to let someone else define what you do? Do you want to be someone's puppet the rest of your days, or are you going to stand up and say, 'That's enough!'?"

Nick was sober now. "You're right," he sniffled. "It just gets so hard, bottling it up. You remember when I told you that you should never let them know that they get to you? You just witnessed about a decade's worth of oppression and depression melt away in that little episode."

"Nick…" Judy said softly, putting her hand on his cheek. "You can tell me anything you have to get off your chest. I'll listen. Promise."

"Thanks, Judy," Nick said, releasing his grip on her a bit to give her a more comfortable hug. The voice was back, and Judy knew that now was the time to tell him. Maybe it was a good thing that Nick interrupted her before she was able to say anything before they got into the car. She made the point of looking deeply into Nick's eyes, where a mixture of sorrow and wonder were present.

"Nick…" Judy stopped herself. She wanted to stop and think about something, but the moment seized it away from her before she could contemplate it. Worry about that later, the voice told her. You have to come clean, and you have to do it now.

Fine, she told it.

"Nick...I...I love you."

Judy waited in anticipation. Nick looked surprised, but she couldn't tell if it was pleasant surprise or appalled surprise. Foxes had a way of being ambiguous in their facial expressions that made it hard to predict their reactions. But Nick broke into a soft smile, and he imitated her, putting his hand on her cheek gently.

"I love you, too, Judy," he said.

Judy's heart leaped into her throat. Is this what it felt like to have a romantic moment with someone? Before she knew what she was doing, she had grabbed Nick's face with both hands and placed her lips against his, naturally folding her ears back as a sign of passion. She felt Nick become a bit defensive as if she were attacking him viciously, then his angst dissolved into love as he kissed her back. And Judy could only guess what it would have looked like to the rest of Zootopia to see a rabbit kissing a fox in a car with tinted windows on a cold, starry night in the middle of nowhere. But to her, the moment was far, far better than magical. It was one of the best moments of her life, and she knew in the back of her head that, as she kissed Nick affectionately, she would never forget the night that she finally told the love of her life that he meant the world to her.


	4. You're Dead, Fluff Butt!

_There was nothing but fire. Fire and smoke everywhere. Judy couldn't see a thing; what was worse, she didn't recognize anything in her old home...and it was now burning down with her inside of it. Panic washed over every fiber of her being, willing her to escape this evil, fiery prison. But she couldn't move. Her arms and legs were too tired. Her lungs were so full of ash that she couldn't breathe without coughing. Her eyes looked around weakly as her vision began to fade. And this was how it all ends...Burned alive at her birthplace. And so life completed its cruel irony..._

The alarm jerked Judy awake. And not before time, too - she had almost died in that house. Still trying to make sense of what she just witnessed, she halfheartedly flailed for the snooze button, and when she found it, pushed the button to quiet the raucous beeping it made. The neighbors hadn't made a noise last night, which she found odd, considering that they spent most nights arguing with each other until the crack of dawn. She got up, stretched, and began to get dressed. Starting the day at four thirty in the morning was much more demanding than she thought. It was only an hour later than when she normally got ready to go to work. But this was a special case...literally. In just eighteen hours, they had to sneak onto the territory of a notorious gang leader, apprehend said gang leader, and trick him into telling herself and Nick where the two missing officers were. And if they failed...two cops would be lost forever.

Still a little frightened from her nightmare, Judy looked at her FURRIE, still a little drowsy, but not a shred less determined than she was two afternoons ago, when Bogo first assigned her the case. She stepped into its constraints, allowing it to briefly squeeze tighter on her appendages than was comfortable before giving her total control of itself. It whirred and clicked with her every move. There was something...satisfying about the feature. The sounds gave her a feeling of superiority, like she was finally the king...well, queen...of the hill. She looked in the mirror to admire herself. The steel frame of the head cage was a little unattractive, yes, but the rest of the machine sort of slimmed down her figure. It was like something a superhero with no powers might wear. The first heroic-sounding name that popped into her head was Cyberbunny, and she felt it had a nice ring to it. Concluding her self-admiration, she picked up her phone and called Nick, putting the rectangular device to her ear and listening for the fox's response.

"Mmmff, hoozis?" Nick had, quite obviously, just woken up.

Judy sighed and put a smile on her face; for whatever reason, she knew that this was going to be how Nick operated during the early morning. "Rise and shine, Nick. We have a crime boss to intimidate."

"No, I don' have any fine gloss imitate," Nick replied, still sleepily slurring his words. "You should as' my gir'f'end, Judy."

Judy stifled a laugh; Nick was much more entertaining when his cognitive functions were impaired. "Nick, this is Judy."

"Judy? Why're you call' me so early? The rooster did'n' even crow, or wha'ev'r."

"We have to go find Wolford and McHorn, remember?"

"No, I don' rem'mber hid'n' a wolf'n his corn."

Judy was getting a little irritated now. "Nick, snap out of it. We have to find out where Wolford and McHorn are." She emphasized each word.

"Mhmm, yeah. I know where the wolf 'n' corn are."

Judy rolled her eyes and sighed; there was one trick left in the book. Hoping this would get Nick riled up, she said just one word: "Squirrel."

It was like slapping the fox on his super-sensitive nose; Nick snapped out of his stupor and started yipping at the squirrel that he could only assume was there. That's when Judy heard a thump and a pained yelp; Nick had most likely fallen out of bed. Groaning came from his side of the phone.

"Oh, hey, Judy," Nick said, now a little less zombie-like. "Weird. I just started chasing a squirrel…"

"I lied, genius," Judy said. "There was never a squirrel. I just wanted to get you up and ready."

"Well, I think whacking my muzzle on the table did the trick."

"Awww," Judy said apologetically. "You poor thing."

"No problem. I've had worse nosebleeds before. So, we're off to see the crime lord of Zootopia, then?"

"Indeed we are," Judy replied, pretending to be cheerful.

"Okay then," Nick said. "I'll come pick you up in 20. Sound good?"

"I'll be waiting."

"See you then."

"Bye, Nick," Judy said before pressing the red button on her phone and ending the call. She had twenty minutes to spare. She thought about MuzzleTiming her parents, but her father was sure to have already left the house and her mother was probably still in bed. She decided against it. What was a bunny to do if she had spare time but not many activities available to her? The window. It was a little underwhelming, yes, but Judy knew that if she looked out of it long enough, she could think with little to no distraction.

Judy walked to the windowsill, set her elbows on top of it, put her paws on her chin, and stared reverently at the early morning sky. The sun had not yet risen, giving her a breathtaking view of the moon being slowly engulfed by the towering buildings of Zootopia. She thought this made the cities seem a million times more beautiful than normal: the starlight reflecting in the windows of skyscrapers, the normally hectic streets now as serene as a stormless sea, not another soul awake...well, besides Nick. Even then, however, he was probably still only half-conscious. Judy chuckled to herself. She wished she had been able to get that conversation on her carrot pen, but then she doubled back. Maybe the best moments of life weren't meant to be caught on recording. Maybe, just maybe, the best moments of life were meant to be technology-free, and treasured in the memories of the select few lucky enough to witness them. Her eyes could barely keep up with the gorgeous colors and lights the twinkled up in the night sky. She looked over the seven lands into which Zootopia was divided. She saw the Aurora Borealis of Tundratown; the lights waved to her as if to say, "Good morning, Judy Hopps. Your hard work will pay off. You'll save those two officers. We are sure of it." Their vibrant colors fluctuated across the sky like a dancer twirling around to stop in front of Judy and ask her to join him. And Judy sat there, watching the colors fly and the stars twinkle and the city sleep, happy that there was nothing to distract her from such a magical phenomenon for the next twenty minutes.

* * *

A knock on the door, more than twenty minutes later, saw Judy still staring wondrously into the morning sky. The sun had barely peeked his face over the hills, as if he was bashful of his entry into the new day. Not wanting to leave her place at the sill, Judy took her elbows off their resting place and looked at the clock. Five AM. Nick was about ten minutes late. Instead of feeling mad, however, she was actually grateful for the fox's tardiness. Had he arrived sooner, she wouldn't have had the extra time to herself to just appreciate life. In the back of her head, she knew death was a very possible outcome from today's...questionable activities. It was important to grab as many spare moments as possible to relax and enjoy the air circulating through her body. With a new determination set in her head, Judy pulled the door of her tiny apartment open, ready to save Wolford, and McHorn, from the wolf's risky bets.

"Waaiit."

Judy screamed and averted her eyes from the nude Yax. She had seen too much of him during the Otterton case and had hoped to never run into him again. Now he was showing up at her front door in all his natural-born glory. His voice had a scratchiness to it, completing the "flower child" stereotype he already almost fulfilled with his long hair and inner peace.

"You're not the two dudes I'm looking for," he said with a hint of disappointment, flies buzzing around his long hair. "Uncoool, maan. Uncoool."

"They're in the next room over!" Judy cried out. She just wanted him to go away as soon as possible so she wouldn't have to try and hide her disgust. Why did she have to witness such an unsightly being right after her date with peace? Then the yak said something that caught her attention.

"I'm totally kidding, maan. Carrots, it's me, duuude. Let me in so I can get out of this tree hugger without anyone getting suspicious."

Judy slowly turned and looked at only the yak's mop of hair; she didn't want to see anything more than she had to. "Nick?" she asked.

"Yeah, it's me, Carrots." The yak parted his hair and looked at her with red eyes. "Let me in. I come in the name of love and world peace, maan."

"Would you just -" Judy sighed exasperatedly. "Fine. Fine! Get in here and get that disguise off before you become my new recurring nightmare."

Nick walked in, still nude as could be, and Judy wasted no time in closing the door as quickly and quietly as possible. Yax held his wrist up to his face, pushed it with his index finger, and became Nick again. The fox, fully clothed, turned around and looked at her with an amused smile on his face.

"If that doesn't wake you up, I don't know what will," he said, laughing.

"How did you cloak yourself as Yax?" she asked, utterly bewildered.

"He was on the FURRIE database. I was scrolling through potential alternate cover IDs for our infiltration of Big's hideout and he just...popped up. Not as an alt cover, though, just some random animal." Nick paused, a thought clearly occurring to him. "You haven't been digging up animals that you could pose as?"

"Well, I've been sleeping for the past nine hours, and that didn't allow for anything else, really. When you sleep, you tend to be...well...not moving."

Nick shrugged. "Suit yourself."

Judy looked at him. "Did you just make that joke?"

Nick raised an eyebrow and lowered it quickly. "Maybe. I swear, just think of the hilarious practical jokes I could pull with this thing."

"And didn't you say the FURRIEs mirror clothes now?"

"Yeah, and can you remember the last time Yax ever wore clothes? He's probably been sporting the natural tux since he was a kid. Now let's get going." He motioned towards the door. "That Italian shrew isn't going to kidnap himself."

Judy grabbed the rest of the equipment Jay had given them. Even if they wouldn't need to use it, in this case, it was much better to be safe than sorry.

* * *

"Who is this?"

Nick looked at Judy; she was, after all, the one who was supposed to get them onto the premises without triggering any alarms. She cleared her throat and spoke in her template's thick Russian slur, replying to Mr. Big's question.

"We are here to see Kevin Kozlov," she explained. "His father has passed."

Silence ensued. Judy feared the worst. Could they have known that it was all a trick? Then a sorrowful sigh came over the intercom.

"Poor Kevin," came Mr. Big's voice. "A shame indeed...Of course...of course...Come in. Kevin must hear this for himself."

"I could not agree with you more," replied Judy. A signal buzzed, the gates opened, and Nick pulled into the driveway of Mr. Big's mansion. He began to help her review the plan.

"So, once we get to wherever we're meeting, you tell Kevin that we need to read the contents of his father's will and that he needs a witness. Mr. Big will insist on being there. We take the advantage and kidnap Big, using knockout gas bombs that will render them all unconscious. Then we retreat to a safehouse that I still need to find, and...Yeah, that's as far as my plan goes."

Judy could spot a gaping hole in Nick's plan. "So how do we not pass out when we use the gas bombs?"

Nick held up a lethal-looking gun much like Bellwether's howling wolf injector. "This, Officer Hopps, is our weapon of choice. Hit Big's henchmen, or any animal for that matter, in the face with this thing, and it'll be lights out before you can even read them a bedtime story. It's area of effect is small and concentrated, so there's no real danger if you don't suffer a direct hit." He extended his paw to give Judy the weapon. "Here. Take this one. I've got another in my belt."

Judy took the gun that he was offering. "So you're giving me a gun that shoots farts?"

Nick started laughing. "That wouldn't have been nearly as funny if you had said that in your normal voice."

* * *

Judy tried her best to mock-comfort Kevin as he sobbed into her great, big, fake bear shoulders. She had just delivered the news to him, and he was far from taking it well. And she couldn't blame him. Losing a parent, she imagined, was one of the worst things that could happen to an animal. She heard Mr. Big reassuring him over his bawling.

"It's okay, Kevin," he said in his oddly gruff, yet high, voice. "He's looking down on you with a smile now."

Kevin showed no sign of stopping soon, so Judy just let him get it all out naturally. She looked around at the many faces of mourning polar bears who were grief-stricken for their friend. How ironic, that these animals had tried to dunk Judy and Nick in ice water the last time they were here, and now they saw the fox and rabbit as friends, as balms to soothe the sadness of Kevin's misfortune. Judy was, however, surprised when Kevin suddenly sniffed, sighed, and broke off the bear hug he was giving her. She could now continue the mission.

"Let us get down to the brass tacks of this...horrific loss," Kevin said, wiping away a tear and sniffling.

"Of course, of course," said Mr. Big. He motioned to Judy. "You may speak what you came here to speak."

Judy gave a small nod and turned to Kevin.

"Mr. Kozlov," she said, hoping her Russian appearance would help her gain Kevin's trust. "Before your father was taken from us, he gave us his will. It would appear that he left you much wealth after his death." She looked up, feigning sympathy. "I am sure you would rather have your father than his money, but sadly, there is nothing we can do about it. He has moved on to a better place." She looked over at Nick, who was standing behind her with his paws clasped together near his groin. "My...associate and I would like, if you are ready, to read you the contents of your father's will. As I am sure you know, we require a witness for such an act. Would you know of anyone you would like to have by your side while we pass his belongings on to you?"

Kevin looked uncertainly at his boss. Mr. Big sighed sadly.

"Family is the most important thing in life," he said bombastically. "If he wishes my presence, I shall comply."

Judy's mind was doing a victory dance; part one of the plan was in motion. "Very well. Mr. Big, would you mind guiding us to the nearest room in which we might have a private conversation?"

"It would be my pleasure." Mr. Big whistled for one of his henchmen; a polar bear picked him up and began to walk out of the doorway through which Judy and Nick had entered. Judy turned, let Kevin walk out the door, give Nick a secretive pat on the back as he left, and made sure to close the door behind her; just because they were going to kidnap someone didn't mean they couldn't be at least a bit courteous, after all.

The five continued down the long hall with nary a word spoken, except for Kevin, who had lost control of himself again and had started crying less than silently. Judy put her big, meaty paw on Kevin's shoulder and started repeating, "It's all right. It will be all right. You're going to be all right, my friend." A right turn at a door saw Big's escort open it and walk into the room behind it. This had happened much faster than Judy expected; she thought they would have to spend a good few minutes walking. Big really valued his privacy. Nick and Kevin followed the tiny shrew into the room, and Judy entered right behind them. What she saw didn't look like what she was predicting at all.

The first thought that came to her head was, "Is this Fru Fru's room?" A feminine touch clearly had a paw in the decoration and arrangement of this place. Pop star posters canvassed the walls. Stuffed animals, most of them a polar bear's natural prey, were lined in a neat row on the gigantic bed. Not a thing was on the floor that shouldn't be, and the desks didn't look even the slightest bit out of order. Kevin, oddly enough, plopped down on the bed, grabbed a penguin doll, and started hugging it.

"I believe that in times of bad news, it's always better to face the struggle in a familiar place," Mr. Big explained to Judy and Nick. "In this case, Kevin needs all the comfort he can get."

Judy thought it was sweet; such a menacing polar bear would never have been expected to have a different side to him that was this softhearted, yet Kevin was hugging the penguin like there was no tomorrow. Her mind second-guessed itself. Why would they want to hurt such a caring creature?

Because he tried to kill you, and now he's going to do the same to Wolford and McHorn, came a voice in her head. Besides, she wasn't hurting him, just rendering him unconscious. He would still get his father's fortune and old possessions, it would just be a little longer until they actually got to him. Just shoot him in the schnoz with the fart launcher and he can dream about...whatever sensitive-sided polar bears dream about. But it would, of course, have to wait. The niceties had to be observed.

"Mr. Kozlov, with your permission, I will now read from the last will and testament of your father."

Kozlov was now sitting straight up; the large gold chain around his neck had replaced the penguin as he stroked the circular object hanging from it gingerly.

"My father gave me this," he said in his choked-up Russian voice, before kissing it and looking skyward. "It was his gift to me when I became of age."

Judy put her paw on his shoulder yet again. "Kevin -" Words were failing her, and, for better or worse, she said whatever presented itself, trusting her instincts to provide comfort for the bear. "- I know your pain. I know what it's like to lose someone of importance to you. Keep your chin up, comrade. It all gets better. You will see. Da?"

Kozlov nodded. "Da."

"Very good, man. This will all be over faster than you can blink your eyes shut."

"Spasibo, comrade," Kozlov thanked her earnestly.

"Pozhaluysta." Judy had no idea where the Russian was coming from, but it was there, and she knew what she was saying: "You're welcome." It was like she was becoming her disguise. She heard Nick move beside her, and she turned around to see him pulling out the fake will he had written for Kozlov. He handed it to her so she could read it out loud.

She cleared her throat. "The following will and testament has been written by -"

"NOW!" Nick yelled it loud enough that Judy had to cringe in pain; she pulled her gun out, still recovering from Nick's yawp, and shot Kozlov in the face. He promptly fell over and began to snore, the capsule of gas shutting down his motor functions and causing him to lose consciousness. Nick hit Big's navigator in the forehead, as well, the latter passing out and falling over with a whack that sounded excruciatingly painful.

Now Mr. Big the only one in the room that they had to worry about. He started to curl up in his chair with fear.

"Wait just a minute now!" he said, alarmed. "I'm sure we can work something out!"

"No. No, we can't," Nick said in his Boston accent, grabbing him and stuffing him into a small, conveniently located box. The blood pounded through Judy's brain; her thumping leg indicated danger coming. Commotion came from outside, and she knew they were going to come in and attack herself and Nick. What to do when the odds are outnumbered and the only thing you have to defend yourself with is a gun with...knockout gas! Judy had assumed that there was only one capsule per gun. But when she looked at Nick, his gun was at the ready, waiting for the animals outside to pounce on him. Judy did the same.

From the other side of the door, she heard a yell of anger. The door splintered open, and a timber wolf came tumbling in. Nick was quick to respond, incapacitating him before he even got the chance to look around and see what was happening. Then another wolf came in, and another and another. Judy shot at each of them, sometimes beating Nick to the punch, sometimes doubling the dosage of knockout gas. Soon a pile of unconscious animals blocked the doorway. It had to have been every guard in the place, with the amount of bodies that were piled on top of each other. But now they had no way to escape. Judy looked at Nick.

"Oh, great going, Nick," she said sarcastically. "Take 'em all out and make sure we can't leave this place."

Nick looked defensive. "Oh, I'm sorry for saving our tails by making sure we didn't get our heads blown off! Jeez, what a bad planner I am!"

"For the love of -" Judy cut herself short and threw her hands up, rolling her eyes. "It doesn't matter, anyway!" She couldn't see how she and Nick would be able to drag the animals away from the door quickly enough. Unless…

Judy pulled out the laser cutter and set the circle's diameter to what she guessed was a hole big enough for the both of them to fit in. The cutter sent a spike into the ground directly below it, then began to spin its appendages around, slowly eating through the wooden floor. Nick watched it with fascination. "That's some intricate slicing and dicing, Carrots," he said.

"Well, all I really care about at this point is making it out alive," Judy said, a little exhausted. She watched the arms of the cutter spin about once, twice, three times. Cautiously, she took a paw and stepped on the circle with a bit of force.

The floor fell out from underneath her, and she fell down, down, down. When she hit, she didn't hit the ground. Instead, she plunged right into water that felt so cold it burned. She struggled frantically to go in the direction that felt like up; she threw one petite paw in front of the other, and when she broke the surface, gasped in air. She had fallen into that icy grave that Big had once threatened to throw them into; she could see the trapdoor that she and Nick had been dangled over the last time they were here. She looked back up to see Nick peering down the hole that the robot had made.

"Carrots!" He called down to her, pointing to the circle of wood that had been cut off from the rest of the floor. "Quick - get up on that table thing and grab the robot!"

She looked to where he was pointing, still numb from the water and stinging air. Sure enough, the wood was there, waiting for her to climb aboard. With what little strength she had left, Judy swam over to it, grabbed onto it as tightly as her painful bunny paws would let her, swung one leg over it, and hauled herself on top of it. The robot had retracted, sensing its job was finished. She grabbed the robot, turned over, and lay there on her back, panting and looking at Nick's concerned face poking out from the hole above her.

"I'm coming down, Carrots. Look out!" Nick backed up out of Judy's view, then re-emerged, falling with relative grace and hitting the water with barely a splash. Judy pushed the FURRIE's deactivation button, and her panting slowly became less and less masculine.

Nick's fox head broke the surface of the water, choking and sputtering. Judy tried using her arms to get closer to him, but her refuge was too large for her to do much of a difference.

"Save your energy, Carrots," he panted. "I'll come to you." Nick began to swim to the buoyant wood, pulling the water past him, then throwing his arm up and repeating the whole motion again. Judy extended her paw, and once Nick got close enough, he grabbed it. Judy pulled, and with enough effort between the two of them, Nick hoisted himself onto the makeshift raft.

"Why didn't you wait any longer?" she asked him. "Why couldn't we have gone a little farther down the road with Kevin's will?"

"Because Big is the mission, Carrots," Nick said, waving the tightly sealed box in front of her. "I think he might have passed out. Now -" he panted, "- our best bet is, I think, to cut another hole in the side of the room, right there." He pointed to a part of the wall he most likely felt was especially helpful in their current predicament.

"Okay, help me push," Judy said. She dipped both of her paws in the water over one side of the raft, and said, "Put your paws in the water and start rowing." Both she and Nick started to row, picking up speed at a moderate pace. As they approached the wall, Judy asked, "Why this particular spot?"

Nick's answer was interrupted by his panting. "We...We'll most likely… be able to cut our way...through the wall above the water and...climb out underneath a waterfall." He lifted his paw and rotated it in the "give or take" position. "If my mental map is correct," he added.

"You've memorized this entire complex?" Judy asked in amazement.

"Only… Only the most important places."

Judy stopped rowing and looked at him. But just as she was going to ask him why he would bother to memorize such information, the raft jolted, and she cried out in surprise. She pulled out the robot, set the diameter, and let the robot work its magic. Once, twice, three times, four...Then it popped off, leaving a completely cut-through hole through which for them to pass. Nick clambered forward, put a hind paw up against the loose part of the wall, and kicked with all his might. The obstacle moved backward, just a bit, then slammed to the ground.

"After you," Nick turned to Judy and offered her the courtesy.

Judy crawled through the hole. It was all she could do to avoid shivering enough that she couldn't move. Paw after paw, she fought the biting, stinging, taunting cold as she got to safety underneath the waterfall, the one that Nick had accurately predicted would be there. Once she had made enough room for Nick to crawl out, she stood up and said, "Cut ties."

The FURRIE skeleton let her go, and her paws and hindpaws could breathe freely now. She took each wrist and rotated them, first the left, then the right, cradling each paw as she did so. She proceeded to sit down, huddled in a corner, and hugged her knees to conserve warmth, shivering uncontrollably. She watched Nick escape from Mr. Big's fortress and meet his freedom on the nice, soft grass. His eyes met hers, and he got up, walked over to her, and hugged her closely, avoiding her deactivated FURRIE skeleton, which was still standing.

"Here we go," he said tenderly. "Much nicer now, right? Oh, wait. Almost forgot." Nick got back up, walked a fair distance away from her, and took off his FURRIE and shirt. Then, without warning, he started shaking off all of the excess water that his fur had retained. His task completed, he came back to Judy and resumed cuddling her without bothering to redress his upper torso. "There. Is that better?"

Judy's feelings for Nick skyrocketed. She looked at him and nodded. But for whatever reason, she didn't feel like things were quite right yet. "S-s-st-still k-ki-kinda c-c-c-cold," she said.

"Oh, okay," Nick said, blushing. "Uh...What could we do to alleviate that? Tighter hug?" He pulled her closer timidly.

"M-m-mhmm," Judy mumbled. She looked up at him. Not even the slightest tremble came from Nick's body; it was like he was impervious to the water. "A-a-aren't you c-cold?" she shivered.

Nick chuckled. "Believe me, I want to curl up into a ball and start freezing, but you need to warm up more than I do. And I'd suggest laying out in the sun to dry off - because believe me, foxes love sun naps - but since this place only gets something like two hours of daylight, and the sun isn't out, and instead of meadows, we have nice snow fields to dry off in, so I think it's better to stay here. That, and I could practically guarantee that the rest of Big's forces are scrambled and trying to find us. And although they're looking for a pair of polar bears, I don't think that they'd take too kindly to slackers." He placed his chin on top of her head. "I swam in high school, so I'm used to the cold." Nick chuckled again, this time a little nostalgically. "I was the one non-naturally-aquatic animal who didn't yell out in surprise when the wind blew on a foggy afternoon while we were all getting out after a workout." Nick chuckled in a way that sounded as if he were pining for his old life back. "Had a crush on one of the vixens on the girls' team."

"Wh-where's Big?"

"In my shirt."

Judy started giggling, shivering as she did so. "Th-that was a f-f-funny way to p-p-put it."

Nick laughed. "Well, it's true. Plus, I think he's unconscious from the fall. Smaller animals take falls worse than bigger ones." He took her paw and began to stroke her palm affectionately with his thumb. Judy looked out at the falling water. It was even more majestic from beneath the rocks. She shifted her body, getting closer to Nick's. Nick knew something was going on, and he hugged her tighter.

"I love you, Carrots," he said. "With all my heart. Do you know that?"

Judy nodded. The shivering was now gone; for whatever reason, Nick's solution had begun to work. She put her head on his bare chest. "I love you too, Nick."

She felt his lips press against the top of her head. It was serene, comforting, like hugging a guardian angel that had taken a physical form. The rhythm of Nick's chest rising and falling was dulling her senses, calling her body to be at peace. She couldn't help it; as she watched the waterfall's majestic beauty, she closed her eyes and drifted to sleep, hoping that soon all of this - all of the danger, the lying, the violence - would be nothing more than a fleeting memory.

* * *

"Carrots."

Judy stirred. Nick was calling her.

"Mmm?" She rubbed her eyes and yawned. "Nick, I just need a bit of rest."

"Carrots." There was something wrong with Nick's voice: forcefulness, with a hint of fear and tension. "Get up. Now."

Judy looked around. She was still on Nick's chest; she let him free and stood up.

"What is it?" she asked, turning around to look at him.

Nick was clearly frightened. He wasn't moving, and he was wearing his frown, speaking through his teeth. He put a finger to his lips and shushed her, then pointed to the rocky ceiling above them.

Judy strained to hear what he was trying to tell her, and then she heard it: a howling wolf. An actual wolf, sounding an alarm to let his allies know that he had picked up their scents. Nick's eyes darted nervously.

"They know we're here," he said through clenched teeth.

Judy's heart leapt. "So what do we do?" she whispered back.

Nick motioned to the FURRIEs.

"Won't they still smell us?"

Nick shook his head. "All I smell is Russian polar bear when you're in that thing. No rabbit scent."

Judy nodded compliantly. "Okay, then," she muttered. "Suit up."

She climbed into the FURRIE and let it squeeze her extremities near to death again, but this time it started whirring noisily. Judy was filled head to cottontail with dread. When would this stop? She heard more wolves closing in on them. Nick now looked much more scared as he ran to his FURRIE, getting it functional as quickly as he could. The whirring continued, and the wolves got closer. By this point, Judy hoped she looked like a polar bear, because she gave Nick a bit more space. Out of nowhere, a white and gray wolf head poked itself underneath the waterfall. Judy gave a Russian "Agh!" of surprise and fear, recoiling instinctively.

"Oi!" he called out in a cockney accent. "What's going on down here, I says?"

"Uhhhh…" Judy was at a loss for words; luckily, Nick wasn't.

"What happened here is for us to know and for you to not find out."

The wolf head was now accompanied by a hand, which was pointing at Nick's shirt. "That bloody fox got away again, didn't he?"

Nick gave a look of feigned confusion. "I thought you guys had him." He shook his head. "I knew I shoulda stayed up with Big's crew up north."

The wolf head switched its gaze from Nick to Judy, then back to Nick again. "So what was that whirring noise we heard?"

Judy couldn't stop herself from giving Nick a mortified stare; did they know about the FURRIEs?

She heard Nick save them. "...Trust me, you don't want to know," he said.

The wolf's eyes widened in understanding and disgust. "You two're bonkers!"

NIck nodded. "Mutually and literally."

"Bloody Yank, bonkers doesn't mean -" The wolf shook his head in annoyance. "Just - let's find those two intruders while I've still got the fox's scent."

"If you haven't noticed, the scent stops here, Balto."

The wolf was clearly offended by Nick's comment. "For the love of God, I'm not Balto! Balto's right here!"

Another wolf, also white, snuck his head underneath the rock he was lying down on.

"Room for one more in this party?" Balto asked, looking very attracted to Nick.

"Bloody hell! We can socialize when we have the two intruders in custody!" The first wolf stopped himself and appeared to think about it. "Well, you can; I'll settle for a pack of jammie dodgers." He saluted Nick and Judy. "Carry on."

Nick seemed to have found a way out, because he said, "Viktor and I'll check the perimeter for any sign of those two."

"All right," the wolf replied. "But no funny business!"

"I don't know," Balto said, his mind clearly on other things. "I wouldn't mind accidentally running into these two again."

Ew, Judy thought.

A hand came from behind Balto's head and slapped the back of it.

"Bloody hell, Balto," the wolf said. "Let's go, already."

Balto and the other wolf disappeared to look for Nick and Judy, who, he didn't know, had just carried out a conversation with him. Judy looked at Nick in relief.

"Good job," she said, still amazed that they were able to trick Balto and his friend into leaving them free to escape.

"Well, you know the British," Nick said, sounding even more like a stereotypical Boston native. "They're about as good at spotting intruders as they are at holding onto their colonies." Then he grabbed his T-shirt and, with determination, walked past Judy and out into view of the surrounding areas. "Now come on. The car's not going to start itself."


	5. Nick Meets the Hopps Pop

Judy gave Big's henchmen nonchalant nods as they hurried by her and Nick, trying to find a fox and a rabbit that were, quite literally, hiding in plain sight. She carried on her attempt at unsuspicious activity as she walked with Nick, getting more and more nervous each step along the way. Someone was bound to notice them and do something about it. Why wasn't anyone suddenly aware of the fact that two guards were walking away from the compound? Didn't the fact that Nick had a T-shirt slung over his shoulder strike any of the guards at even the slightest bit fishy, especially since the shirt was far from polar-bear sized? But no, not a single soul gave them a second look, owing to the fact that they were already preoccupied with their own individual objectives...or at least, that's what Judy thought explained it. There was no way she was going to stop them and ask; she just matched Nick's pace step for step. She heard a voice behind them calling at them.

"Hey, you two!"

Judy turned around to see a tuxedo-clad polar bear advancing towards them.

"Yeah, what's up?" Nick asked in his Boston accent.

"Where do you two grunts think you're going?"

"Mr. Big wants to get away from here until we find who is responsible for break-in." Judy was surprised to find that she was able to cover up their deception so easily. "We are escorting him to safe house, where we will await signal that intruders have been dealt with."

"Oh," the bear said, losing his "big boss" mojo as soon as he heard that he was interfering with Mr. Big's removal from the premises. "Okay. Just make sure he gets there safely."

"Yes, sir," Nick replied, and the bear jogged off to complete whatever task he had been assigned. Judy breathed a silent sigh of relief. They had almost reached the car lot and secured their escape; Judy started walking just a bit faster, and Nick began to try and catch up.

"Which car?" she asked.

"The car we came in with," Nick said, looking at her oddly. "There's no reason to use a limo in a car chase situation."

"What?!" Judy asked him disbelievingly. "We're going to be in a car chase?"

Nick shrugged. "I told you I didn't think this far ahead."

Judy was now overcome with dread. They were going to be found out and captured. What would happen next, she didn't want to think about.

Okay, she told herself. Just keep walking, just keep walking. Her natural instinct to run was being barely suppressed by her will to complete her mission. Nick pointed at the small black sedan they had used to infiltrate the compound.

"There," he said. "That's our getaway vehicle right there. Here goes nothing." Judy changed trajectory, beelining for the passenger's side of the car. Her mind could feel her body's powerful desire to run away. Being surrounded by predators suddenly became a very real, very frightening truth. As calmly as she could, paws trembling in apprehensiveness, she opened the door and climbed into the cabin, her mind and body both calming down as she closed the door. That was one more thing she didn't have to worry about. Nick closed the driver's door and reached for the key. A look of weariness came over his face.

"Ugggh," he groaned. "Of course I didn't leave the stupid key in the ignition." He rummaged around for the key, trying to find it. He stopped moving abruptly as he felt underneath his seat, and when he brought his paw back up, he was grasping the key. He jammed it in the ignition and twisted it. As the car turned over, Nick, in a flash of movement that could have qualified as a momentary seizure, leapt up and put his left paw on the wheel while simultaneously throwing the steering into reverse. He backed up, turning the car so that it would now drive out of the complex and, hopefully, to safety. Judy looked out of her window, looking for anyone who might have suddenly connected the dots. Sure enough, a wolf had looked at them and noticed what they were up to. He raised his nose to the sky and howled at the top of his lungs. The sound chilled Judy's blood.

"Ooooowwwwwwooooooooooooo…."

She looked over at Nick who was in the middle of tossing his gas gun at her. She fumbled it in surprise, recovered herself, and shot at the howling wolf as the car sped for the exit. The wolf fell over; Judy, with renewed confidence, knew she had hit the mark. She felt the all-too-familiar sensation of being shoved into the back of her seat, and the thrill of the chase took over. No more fear resided in her head; no longer did her body have to constantly be told by her mind not to run. There was only freedom and captivity, and there was nothing to stop her from getting as far away from the danger as possible. She looked back to Nick again, who, to Judy's dismay, was holding a grenade.

"Nick!" Judy thought she was seeing things; Nick would never use such a destructive device, no matter the situation. "What are you doing?"

Nick pulled the pin with his teeth. "If I'm going to get killed by these guys, it's not going to be because I unknowingly sold them the wrong thing. There's one thing I'm not gonna let happen, and that thing is losing my life to a rug." He took his paw off the lever, letting it fly through the open driver's side window before lobbing the explosive out into the car lot. Judy watched it soar over car roofs before landing on a gas pump. Judy had no time to register the fact that Mr. Big had his own gas supply was very odd indeed; she was already busy worrying about whether or not their vehicle would be far enough away from the resulting explosion for them to survive. She watched in anticipation as all seemed calm, then gasped as a gigantic flash of orange light leapt into the sky, accompanied by a concussive wave of sound that nearly deafened her.

"Now _that's_ one of the perks to this job!" Nick yelled in triumph. "WHOO!"

"Are you _insane?_ " Judy shouted at him. "Now they know we've escaped! They'll have units all over Zootopia looking for us!"

Nick laughed in a high-pitched tone in a way that made it seem like he was indeed insane. "Not without their vehicles, they're not! We just took out their entire fleet of cars! I'd like to see them try and catch us now!"

Judy was afraid for her life; since they had started the mission, Nick had been loving, then caring, then friendly, then somber, then caring again, and now he was pretending to be a mental patient for no reason. What did the future hold in store for him? Which face would he wear next? What masquerades would he be part of for the rest of the mission? Were all of his love monologues just veils for what was really going on in Nick's head?

"Uh, Carrots?" Nick's voice brought Judy back to the situation at hand. "Just out of curiosity, is there any place you know of that we could use for a safehouse?"

She looked at him, appalled that he thought she would know of any place like that. "What do I look like, a criminal?"

"Jeez, I'm sorry," Nick said defensively. "It's just that...you know...we might not have many options here!"

Judy scanned her memory for anything that even remotely be useful. The underground shelter on her family farm!

"When I was growing up on my parents' farm," she said slowly, "my dad was always afraid that a -" She had almost said _"fox_ , _"_ and that wouldn't have helped her relationship with Nick. She saved herself. "-a tornado or a hurricane would come through and destroy everything we owned, including our lives, if we weren't protected. So we had a storm cellar that we would retreat to whenever it was unusually overcast. I would ask my parents, but my phone is back at the -" She stopped and watched as Nick pulled his own mobile device from his shirt pocket and gave it to her. She took it, and immediately noticed a problem: there was water on it.

"Didn't it fall -"

"Waterproof case," Nick explained, indicating the hard plastic cover that engulfed the entire phone. "Any depth, up to about 100 feet, and this baby will still run."

Judy stared at it in awe; technology had certainly come a long way. She unlocked it (Nick didn't have a password, funnily enough), opened the phone application, and punched in her parents' phone number before holding the phone up to her ear. "Pick up, pick up, pickuppickuppickup…" she begged her parents, even though she knew they couldn't hear her.

" _Who is this?"_ she heard her father on the other end.

"Dad! It's me!" Judy was profusely relieved that he had answered; after all, now they were, possibly, one step closer to saving Wolford and McHorn.

" _Judy?!"_ Her father sounded ecstatic. _"Bonnie! It's her! It's Judy!"_

Judy couldn't stop herself from rolling her eyes and giving a chuckle; her dad was always paranoid that she was either wounded or dead, and it was nice to know that he still cared about her well-being. She heard her mother in the background.

" _Judy? Judy!"_ Her voice got louder and louder; she was coming closer and closer to the phone. _"Are you all right? Is everything okay?"_

"Yeah, I'm fine. I just have a really quick question."

" _Oh, yeah?"_ Her dad was back again. _"What's that, honey?"_

"I need somewhere to stay for the next few days. Do you mind if I come back to the farm and live with you guys for a while?"

" _Of course! Of course, you can stay with us! We'd be glad to have you home!"_ Her mom seemed overjoyed that her daughter was coming home; her parents never had a peaceful moment, knowing that one of their offspring was constantly putting her life in danger.

"Great!" she said. "You'll get to meet my boyfriend. He's a cop, too." She looked over at Nick, who was waving his hand side to side and shaking his head frantically, eyes wide in fear.

 _Don't do it,_ he mouthed to her.

 _What are you afraid of?_ she mouthed back.

Nick pointed to himself, then bared his teeth and bit, then pointed to Judy. She rolled her eyes. So what if he was her natural predator?

 _I don't care_ , she mouthed to him, turning back to the conversation she was having with her parents

" _He sounds like a good match already,"_ her father laughed. _"I look forward to meeting him."_

"He's excited to see you guys, too." She glared at Nick, who was now pretending to cut his own head off. "Bye!"

" _See you soon, Judy!"_

Judy pushed the red button of the screen and tossed the phone back to Nick.

"Are you crazy?!" he said, catching the phone with one paw.

"Well, you're going to be living there anyway," she told him. "We might as well introduce you to them."

"If you hadn't _told_ them you had a boyfriend, I could have snuck into the storm cellar without them noticing."

Judy rolled her eyes. "Puh- _lease_. You think my dad doesn't have a freakishly sensitive sniffer when it comes to detecting foxes? You would be lucky to get within a hundred feet of the property line."

Nick looked at her suspiciously. "And he'll somehow miss my eau de canine twelve feet away...why?"

"He gets excited whenever he smells family members he hasn't seen in a long time, and he lets his guard down."

"Ah." Nick put his eyes back on the road. He looked like he wanted to say something, but, at the same time, he didn't want to bother Judy with another question.

"Soooo…" he let the word trail off for a moment. "...where's your family farm again?"

Nostalgia was the only thing that ran through Judy's head as they pulled up to her old farm. So many of her fondest memories had been made here...but then, she remembered, so were the worst. Most of the latter had been made by both her predator-prejudiced father and GIdeon Grey alike. She now realized how ironic it had been; after all, how could hate a predator and, at the same time, hate prey who hated predators? If ever there was a notable duration of hypocrisy in her life...Now that she had met Nick, she was ready to turn a new leaf with Gideon. After all, he clearly was, otherwise he wouldn't have apologized for his mean-spirited childhood actions while doing business with her father. She wondered if they would meet him, and how Nick would react to seeing another fox making an honest living. She looked at Nick and said, "Get ready to meet the folks."

Nick cringed momentarily.

"Awww, is poor, old Nicky still a wittle nervous?" Judy assumed a cute-sounding voice, mock-taunting him.

"I still have highly unpleasant memories from predator discrimination, if you remember our sky ride."

"Oh, Nick." Judy shook her head in an attempt at fake shame. "If my parents can put aside their differences to work with a fox that used to bully me, they'll be able to accept that a fox cop is dating me. And if they can't, well…" She leaned over and pecked him on the cheek. "Then I'll just have to talk some sense into them."

"Well, we're here," Nick said as they stopped in front of Judy's old home. "Hope you studied argumentative methods in your high school English class."

"Oh, you." Judy play-slugged him on the arm. "Always got to be a pessimist, huh?"

Nick chuckled. "Always got to be an optimist, do ya, Carrots?"

Judy smiled back at him as she opened her car door and said, "Cut ties." The FURRIE released her, and she put it back in Big's stolen vehicle, which was surprisingly spacious. As she turned her back on the gadget and made her way to the front door, her emotions ran rampant, yelling at her to do what they wanted her to do: run, cry, laugh, hide. She steeled her nerves, her officer training coming back to her, and knocked. The door opened, but Judy didn't see anyone on the other side.

"Who you?"

Judy looked down to see one of her brothers looking up at her.

"Hey...you!" She had already forgotten the kid's name; once her sibling count hit triple digits, she had given up trying to memorize their faces and respective names. Plus, at least twenty percent of them were identical twins. "It's your big sister, Judy! Do you remember me?"

The kit slowly shook his head, then noticed her uniform.

"Are you a peas officer?"

Judy giggled. "Yep, I'm a police officer, all right!"

"What Daddy do dis time?"

Judy stopped and looked at him. Her father was a lawbreaker? She heard her mother laughing in the background.

"Okay, that's enough, Jonathan," she said. "Go on and play."

"Okay." Jon didn't need telling twice. He waddled off to what was presumably his room, clearly still trying to master walking. Judy looked up to see the smiling face of Bonnie Hopps looking at her, not even trying to hid the fact that she was overjoyed that her daughter was visiting.

"Judy!" Mother and daughter threw their arms about each other simultaneously, embracing for the first time in what seemed to Judy like an eternity. "Hey, Mom," she said.

"It's so good to see you!" her mother said. "We're always scared for your safety, what with your dad constantly reminding us that you're in danger most days."

Judy rolled her eyes. "Honestly, Mom, I'm fine. So,has Dad actually had cop problems in the past, or is -"

Her mother chuckled. "Now when have you ever know your father to be a lawless rabbit?" They broke off the hug and looked at each other. "So, honey where are you coming from?"

"Well, we just finished part of a mission, and we're -"

"A mission?" Her mother's voice was now fraught with alarm.

Judy chuckled dismissively; there was no reason to tell her mother that she had fallen into a well of ice water and escaped a compound moments before an explosion went off. "It's nothing major; just a little something that needed clearing up." She was telling her mother this partially because she didn't want her mother to be apprehensive every time Judy went into the field, but also because she needed to shake off some of the excitement herself. It's not every day one piles up unconscious bodies in a doorway, kidnaps a crime boss, then pretends to have an intimate meeting with their boyfriend while they're both disguised as male polar bears. She needed an energy drink...or maybe a nap. She needed a nap. Definitely a nap.

"Well, I'm glad you're okay," her mother continued. "Your father's out tending to the crops, but he'll be back soon.

"So where's this boyfriend cop you told me about?"

Judy looked back; she saw Nick's outline still behind the wheel of the car. He was doing very poorly in hiding the fact that he was nervous. Judy sighed, rolled her eyes, and called out to him.

"Nick!" she cried out. "Come on, would you grow a spine?"

A yelled response came from the car. "I'm already a vertebrate, Carrots!"

"Just get over here! My dad's not even close!"

"Are you tricking me?"  
" _Squirrel!_ "

It did the trick; Nick started yipping as he jumped out of the car and made for the door like Big's henchmen were hot on his hindpaws, still wearing his FURRIE skeleton. He stopped short of Judy and her mother by about ten feet, putting his paws on his knees and breathing heavily, realizing that there were, in reality, no squirrels to be found.

"That wasn't nice, Carrots," he laughed.

Judy chuckled and turned back to her mom, who seemed amused by the antics of her daughter's boyfriend, but also a little nervous about the fact that he was sporting a metal skeleton with a muzzle-like head cage.

"You must be the cop Judy fell in love with," she said.

Nick was still panting. "Yep. Yep, I...She ended up...charming me."

Judy walked down to him and put a loving arm around him. "He's too modest. I fell for him." She kissed him on the cheek again.

"What happened to him? What's that thing he's wearing?"

"Oh, whoops," Nick said. "Thanks for reminding me. Cut ties." The FURRIE freed him.

"That's a fancy-schmancy gadget we get to use on the force," he explained. Judy suddenly remembered that these were prototypes, and the fact that she had let her mother see it could potentially endanger her.

"Well, there's nothing as heartwarming as young love." Her mother gestured for them to enter the house, both oblivious to the fact that she had just seen experimental technology and confused as to how Nick could possibly have been wearing a robot on his back. "Come on in."

Judy walked into her old home with Nick, who had since recovered from his little outburst of energy. She could see his nose sniffing, picking up all the smells he might have to utilize later. It was second instinct for foxes to smell everything so they could track something down if need be. He was probably picking up years' worth of carrot cake and bunny fuzz with that nose.

"So, Nick," her mother said, trying to make conversation. "Where do you come from?"

"The Downtown District in Zootopia. Born and raised there."

"Well, now. A city boy, huh?"

Judy looked at Nick, who was rubbing his neck. "Yeah. Lived there my whole life. Childhood, college, career…"

While it was misleading, it was also true. Nick had indeed spent his days as a kit, student, and hustler in the district. Judy knew that he was smoothing over the "I'm an ex-criminal" part; it was definitely not the right first impression to make on your girlfriend's mom.

"Oh yeah? What was your major?" Her mother, clearly, was none the wiser.

"Computer science," Nick explained. "I went for a master's degree, then later down the road, I decided to become a cop."

What a jerk, a voice said in Judy's head. He's lying to your mother. What kind of loving daughter are you if you let him keep up this charade?

He's not lying, she told it. He's just...not telling the entire story.

Yeah, the voice said shortly. He's lying.

Cram it, she bit back.

"Well, now," she heard her mom say, interested. "That's where all the money's at isn't it? Computers and fancy gizmos." She laughed. "Did you know there's actually an automatic carrot peeler on the market? Your father was _ecstatic_ when he heard about it!"

Judy thought this was rather odd. "Doesn't Dad tend to hate new inventions?"

"Well, he _is_ a carrot farmer, so it makes his job easier. Peeled carrots are all the rage with kits now. Young rabbits just love the stuff."

"That sounds like a get-rich-quick scheme to me, Mrs. Hopps." Nick was trying to charm Judy's mother now; there was no way to miss it.

"Oh, please," her mother replied, "call me Bonnie."

"Sorry, Mrs. Hopps, I didn't mean any ill will. There's just a -" Nick paused, then leveled his paws and started moving his arms up and down, like two elevators that were always going the opposite direction. "-standard I have when it comes to respecting authority."

Judy's mom put her paws on her hips. "Well, color me impressed! You've found a lovely young man, Judy." She looked at her daughter, who fake-smiled.

"Yep," she chuckled. "That's Nick all right."

A knock on the door interrupted the conversation.

"Huh," Judy's mother said, confused. "Stu can't possibly have finished working yet." She walked to the door and opened it. Judy was surprised to see that Gideon Gray had come to visit.

"Gideon!" her mother exclaimed. "It's good to see you! What's going on?"

"Welp, I'm trying my hand at a line of carrot cakes, and I was wonderin' if you'd like to help contribute," he said in his Southern drawl. Then he noticed Judy. "Hey, Judy! Well, ain't that a coincidence! You're lookin' great! Cop life treatin' ya well?"

Judy shook his outstretched paw. "Hey, Gideon! I just got here, myself. My boyfriend Nick and I are staying here for a few days to recharge our batteries before our next assignment."

Gideon laughed. "Well, the way you was talkin', I'm not surprised. Somethin' about flowers making animals crazy...And I thought the hippies had found all those natural hallucinogens already! So who's this Nick?"

"That'd be me, Mr. Gray." Nick stepped into view of the baker. Judy looked between the both of them. It was like two brothers had been reunited after years of wartime separation.

"Well, shave my fur and call me a naked mole rat!" Gideon cried out. "It's another fox!"

Nick shook his hand. "How are you today, Mr. Gray?" he asked.

"Just dandy!" came the reply. "It's been a long while since I've seen a fox around these parts. Well, excepting the times I looked in the mirror." Gideon shifted his gaze to Judy. "So how'd you two meet?"

"Police work." It's not lying, after all, Judy told herself as she answered Gideon's question. It was just...not telling the entire story.

"Ah, nice," came Gideon's reply. "Well, I just dropped by to give ya an offer, Mrs. Hopps. If you need a bit a time to think, I'd be happy to some back another day."

"As tempting as it sounds, Gideon," Judy's mother said, "well...I'd feel better about making the arrangement if Stu was here."

"Awrighty then. Great seein' ya, Mrs. Hopps, Judy, Nick. I guess it's back to the shop for me." He made a motion as if he were going to walk out the door, but stopped. "Hey, y'all're still comin' the the dinner tonight, right?"

"Of course, Gideon," replied Mrs. Hopps.

"Wait." Judy had no idea what he was talking about. "What dinner?"

"Ah, that's right. I forgot." Gideon began to explain.

"We're having a bar-bee-que dinner for all of the farms and such involved in my food business. Problem is…" Gideon scratched his left ear. "We had a band lined up to play, and just yesterday evenin' their drummer got some kinda sickness or something. And without the backbone, the rest of the body just crashes down."

Nick raised his hand to eye level, trying to get Gideon' attention. "Uh, has the band already canceled?"

Gideon looked at him in curiosity. "They were looking for a fill-in this afternoon. Why?"

"I could play for them."

Judy matched Gideon's look of inquisitiveness. "Nick, have you even played an instrument in your life?"

Nick looked mock-hurt. "Music minor," he said in a singsong voice. "Besides, I was part of a band in high school. 'Panda-monium,' we called ourselves. Our singer was a panda, and I was the resident head-hitter. The head of the drum is the part you hit," he added, for clarity.

"Well, then, I'm sure they'll take ya up on that offer. I'll let 'em know. See y'all tonight!" Gideon walked away and climbed into his van, then drove off, kicking up a cloud of dust that emanated from the dirt road. Nick turned to look at Judy.

"That was the first time I've seen another fox in years. I don't think I've laid eyes on another _vulpes vulpes_ since grade school."

Judy was lost. "What about Finnick?"

Nick waved a dismissive hand. "He's a fennec fox; they're practically chihuahuas already, and chihuahuas are overgrown rats, anyway."

"Say, Mom."

"Yes, Judy?"

"We don't want to be a bother," Judy explained. "Do you think we could set up shop in the storm cellar?"

"Oh, you mean the fox shelter?"

Judy froze, her teeth clenched; she had just made a very bad mistake. Nick looked perplexed.

"'Fox shelter?'" he asked.

"Never mind," Judy's mom said. "I'm sorry. It was just a slip of the tongue and not enough energy. I've been trying to keep all of these kits healthy and safe and they just insist on running away from me. What with you and Gideon...I just had fox running through my head."

Wow, Judy thought to herself. Mom's a really good liar.

"The storm cellar. Of course, why not? I mean, if you _really_ want to…"

"It's no big deal, Mom, really," Judy said. "We just don't want to become another thorn in your side."

"Okay, then," said her mom. "Go ahead and set up shop down there."

"Come on, Nick," Judy told him. "We've got preparations to take care of."

Judy opened the double doors in the ground next to her house. As she walked down the stairs and got an eyeful of the place, she found that it hadn't really changed. Everything was bare; it was still just a hollowed-out hole in the ground. One solitary light hang in the middle of the room, not quite enough to blanket the entire place, but much better than a pitch black container to be used only when the family's fears ran free. Judy saw the old table they kept down here lying on its side, and she talked up to Nick, who was just starting the descent himself.

"Hey, Nick," she explained. "We need to set up that table so we can put Big on it when it comes time to interrogate him."

"What table?"

"Come down here and you'll see what I'm talking about."

"Isn't this how every horror movie starts? With the main characters walking into a dark room?"

"Would you-"

"All right, all right, I'll come down!"

Judy was glad for Nick; if he hadn't agreed, she would have been forced to use the tried-and-true "Squirrel" method, and as much as she didn't want to embarrass the love of her life, she also didn't want to be responsible for the deaths of two other officers. She grabbed one end of the table and waited for Nick, who leapt from the middle of the staircase to the bottom, rolling as he hit the ground and bounding back up. Judy was impressed.

"When did you learn how to freerun?"

"Come on, Carrots," Nick said. "You think I haven't had to outrun Big's henchmen before? I love freerunning. It's like being able to go anywhere you want to." He grabbed the other end of the table.

"You'll have to teach me sometime," Judy told him. "One, two, three, pick up!"  
Simultaneously, they turned it ninety degrees so it now stood upright and moved to the spot directly underneath the light. It was the perfect way to interrogate a suspect: a dimly-lit room, uncomfortable seating arrangements…

Wait. Seating arrangements? "Nick?" she asked.

"Yeah?"

"Which chair are we going to tie Big to?"

"His own," Nick replied, pulling out the box. "He's still unconscious, _and_ he has his cute little crime boss chair with him. Just zip-tie this sucker's arms and legs to this chair, and he won't be going anywhere for a while." He opened the box and placed Mr. Big, chair and all, on the table. Then he got down on his knees, squinted his eyes, and, just like threading a needle, bound the mafia leader to his own chair. "Who's got the raw end of the deal now, Biggie Smalls?" he taunted.

Judy couldn't understand him "'Biggie Smalls?'"

Nick shrugged. "I don't know, it sounded like a name Big would have had in school."

"Is Biggie Smalls a pen name for someone else?"

Nick frowned. "I don't think so. Besides, what kind of idiotic animal would use such a terrible alias? A rap singer?"

Judy looked at him. "Animals are wild, Nick. Animals are wild."

"Not anymore, they're not. Thank God for that, I might add." He looked at her lovingly. "Otherwise, we wouldn't have each other."

Judy rolled her eyes and gave a short chuckle. "You're such a hopeless romantic, Nick."

Nick assumed a mock-cute voice. "Aww, hooza gwumpy bunny, huh? Are you a gwumpy bunny?"

Judy punched him in the arm, a little harder than she intended. "Sorry," she said, hastily trying to make amends.

"It's fine," Nick said. "I've had worse things make contact with my arm...like a bullet, for example."

Judy was surprised to hear it. "You've been shot in the arm?"

"Yeah," Nick said slowly, as if Judy should have already known. "And the throat. Please tell me you remember when I got shot in the throat."

"Yes, I remember, Nick. That was when I reenacted that old play I performed in as a kit. How could I not forget that?"

"Good. Now, let's get out of this place. I'm already getting claustrophobic."

"Nick, you're claustrophobic?"

"No, but I might _become_ claustrophobic if we don't leave like right now."

"Fine." Judy pointed to the steps and looked at him. "Ladies first."

"Funny." Nick ascended step by step, getting back up to ground level. Judy did the same, following the fox back onto the surface. There was, after all, so much her mother would likely want to be caught up on; the brief conversation they had had upon arrival wasn't going to be enough for years of separation. But as she got closer and closer, she heard her dad talking, and he sounded a little annoyed. Judy poked her head out of the cellar to see her unhappy father talking to Nick.

"What are you doing here, anyway?" he asked the fox.

"Look, I don't want any trouble, Mr. Hopps" Nick replied. "I'm Judy's boyfriend, Nick."

"Well, look here, _Nick_." Her father spat his name like it was a curse word. "You know that there has never been a single case where a rabbit and a fox fell in love, and there never will be."

Judy was highly offended by her father's anger towards Nick. " _Dad_!"

Nick turned around to look at her, and her father took his gaze off of Nick to look at her. "Listen here, young lady, I refuse to let you come in contact with this fox."

"That's plain hypocrisy, Dad!" Judy had him cornered, and she knew it. "If you're able to work with a fox who used to beat me up, then you can darn well tolerate a fox that has done nothing but truly care for me!"

"Gideon Gray is a business partner, not a relationship partner!"

"Nick and I are both cops on the force! And I'm my own rabbit! I can date whoever I want! Get with the program, Dad!"

"This is outrageous!" Her dad was almost completely enraged. Nick lay his ears back in nervousness.

"Uh, Judy…" he said. "Maybe we should just go."

Judy stopped to think about it, never letting the look of defiance leave her face. If she were to stay here and argue, it would just make things worse, but if she left, it might look like she didn't care anymore. After a momentary debate in her head, she said, "All right, Nick. Let's go."

Nick walked past her and she put her arm around him as a sign of love. But before they left her father's sight, she turned to him and said, "Nick and I love each other, Dad, and I mean _truly_ love each other. And if you think he and I are going to let a fickle thing like old predator-prey relationships get in the way, then you're hopelessly blind."

A long, painful silence ensued as they rounded the corner to Judy's front door. Nick was shaking, and Judy knew he was more than nervous now. She let him free from her grip and he leaned against the wall.

"Wow," he said. "I didn't know you were so confrontational."

"My dad just doesn't get it." Judy was still extremely mad at her father. Didn't he know that other predator-prey relationships got along just fine? "In his eyes, foxes will always be untrustworthy. My dad doesn't even fully trust _Gideon_ , let alone the one animal I've fallen in love with."

"Look, Carrots," said Nick gently, "I'm sure things will work out. I'll earn his trust one way or another." He pecked her on the top of her head and held her hand.

Judy chuckled; it was nice having such a kind soul looking after her. Nick clearly really enjoyed keeping her safe. "Well, I'm sure you'll get a chance at the dinner tonight. How good are you at improvising songs?"

"As long as I can count to four and hit stuff, I'm good."

Judy laughed. "Oh, you."

"It's not that difficult once you get the hang of it. It's like riding a bike: once you learn, it sticks with you. What's more, I learned how to play all by myself, so I know my teacher's instructions are reliable."

"All right, then, Professor Wilde," Judy said. "Go be a drummer, and then we can keep our search for Wolford and McHorn going."

"Oh, yeah. I was wondering about that. So how are we going to get Mr. Big to confess he's got them somewhere?"

"Aren't you the mastermind?"

"Well, yeah," Nick said. "Normally. But I want to take your opinion into account when we do this. Let's not forget that he's tried to kill you, too."

"Fair enough." Judy thought about it, slowly walking Nick through her plan as she formulated it. "Well, we've already decided that we're going to pose as criminals that are looking for a couple of pocket cops, but how are we going to approach it?"

"It's all about setting, Carrots. Since we're interrogating him in a literal hole in the ground, we pretend that we're insane and just starting to gain momentum in the criminal underworld."

Judy hesitated. "I don't feel like I would be very good at pretending to be crazy."

"Well, then, I'll pretend I'm working alone." The gears in Nick's head were undeniably turning now. "If I'm going for the fear factor, I'm going to lurk in the shadows and talk to him from there, but I'm going to constantly move about so every time I talk, my voice comes from somewhere else in the room. That'll get him scared."

"One more thing, Nick." It had suddenly occurred to Judy that it wasn't very crime-boss-like of Big to try and hide in his swivel chair. "Why would Mr. Big, being an extremely powerful animal, suddenly become a tiny little ball of fear?"

Nick looked at her. "It doesn't matter if you're being targeted by a crime boss or a playground bully. As soon as you stand up to the leader and give him what for, his forces scatter and he's all on his own. He's just one animal with no one willing to back him up. And then...then he realizes that on his own, he's nothing, and he's at your mercy. That, Carrots, is why Mr. Big was afraid of us when we shot his guards. He knows he's nothing without them. He's vulnerable without them. Now that we have him completely isolated from his forces, he'll be more than likely to cooperate with us.

"But let's worry about that later. For now, we should probably start prepping for that dinner we're apparently going to."

"All right," Judy agreed. "It'll be nice to get out of these clothes anyway."


	6. The Taming of the Shrew

Judy listened to all of the sounds that ensued: conversations about different topics, laughter and the clinking of glasses, the crackle of the barbecue fire, the live music...featuring one of the two foxes she had ever seen in her life. Nick looked comfortable with the band and all the attention he was getting. Who would have guessed that a third-party fox would make an appearance as a guest musician for the night's entertainment? It made for a much more magical night under the stars, all right. It was especially interesting to watch Nick start a new song, because each time it changed, he slowly got more and more into the music until he was so animated that it looked as if he had just drunk a gallon of caffeine. He was definitely a keeper, no doubt about it…

"So what's his angle?"

Judy was appalled by her dad's sudden comment. She stared at him as he worked on his meal.

" _Dad_!"

"What?" he mumbled through a mouthful of veggie burger. "Foxes always have an angle."

"Fine. His 'angle'-" Judy put air quotes around the word "angle." "-is that he loves me, Dad. He's been nothing but kind to me ever since we started working together, and his intentions are pure. He let himself get shot in order to save me, Dad! How can you sit there and think he doesn't actually love me?" Her "working together" argument was a bit of a stretch, and she knew it; Nick was not, after all, working _with_ Judy originally, he was working _for_ Judy in the hopes of escaping charges for tax evasion. Then, when they actually got to know each other, he started working with her, cooperating with her of his own free will.

Her mother looked at her father. "As much as I don't want to admit it, sweetie, Judy has a point." She put her hand on his.

"I agree with Judy, Mr. Hopps," Gideon chimed in. "Yes, he's a fox, but would he really endanger his life to save his victim? It ain't the smartest move. I definitely wouldn't do nothin' like that. Not like I'm trying to trap a victim or nothin'," he added hastily. "I'm just putting my paws in the shoes of an animal with some kind of crime planned."

"But still…" Judy's father waved his fork at her. "He has to have an ulterior motive."

"Ugggh," Judy sighed exasperatedly. "Why do you have to be so stubborn, Dad?"  
"It's in their nature, honey. Deception is a fox's best friend."

Judy rolled her eyes. "Yeah, if we're talking about foxes from, like, a really, really long time ago. Nick's different. He's changed a lot from his ancestors. His love for me is pure, I can tell." She got very serious. "Dad. How many deceptive foxes have you ever known to tell their worst childhood experience to a complete stranger? He _trusts_ me, Dad. And I trust him. And you should trust him, too."

Her father sighed and lightly bounced his head from side to side, looking up at the sky; he was clearly thinking about it. "All right," he said. "I'll give him a chance to earn my trust."

Judy was relieved; Nick could prove himself innocent after all. "Thanks, Dad. I love you."

"I love you too, honey bunny." He laughed nostalgically. "Remember when we used to call her that, Bonnie? Our little honey bunny."

Judy let her ears down and blushed, embarrassed. "Dad," she said in a quiet voice. "Stop."

"Oh, I'm just teasing you, ya little munchkin."

A hiatus in the music and a tap on the microphone got Judy's attention. The singer, a small otter, was trying to talk to the partygoers.

"All righty then," he said. "Me and the boys are gonna take a break to let our fill-in, Nick Wilde back there on the set - and thanks a lot for agreeing to play with us tonight on such short notice Nick. Let's give him a paw, huh?"

Cheers and applause welcomed Nick, who responded to the praise with an appreciative smile and a paw forming the peace sign with his index and middle fingers. Judy felt a sense of pride and the desire to stand up and yell, "That's my boyfriend!" She decided against it, however; it would only make her feel awkward.

"Anyway, we're going to let him pore over the next songs in the set, because while drummers are naturally good at improvising, there's no harm in being prepared. But believe me, when we take the stage again, I promise you we'll keep the neighbors up all night, okay?"

A collective chuckle and raucous applause rippled throughout the audience.

"All right. Keep enjoying your veggie barbecue, ladies and gentlemen." More applause, this time polite, ensued as the entire band stepped off the stage and out into the crowd. Judy watched Nick as he made a beeline for her table, accompanied by - surprisingly enough - the singing otter. She stood up and threw her arms around the fox.

"You're really good, Nick," she said.

"Yeah, much better than Steve, our regular hyena drummer," the otter added. "You know, if you ever need a band to play with, we'd be happy to accommodate ya."

"Well, I appreciate the offer, but I don't think my ZPD shift schedule would allow for that to happen. Apologies." Nick brought one of his drumsticks from his back pocket and started twirling it, and Judy knew his "I played in high school" statement was true; after all, she didn't know an animal that knew how to twirl a drumstick and didn't know how to play the drums.

The otter waved his hand. "Nah, that's fine. I'd rather keep the streets safe than the music playing. But having both at the same time...now _that's_ Zootopia if I have a say in it."

"I didn't catch your name, by the way, Mr…."

"Oh, of course." The otter turned to the table and introduced himself. "The name's Wellet. Herb Wellet."

Judy, Nick, Bonnie, Stu, and Gideon all greeted him differently.

"Hello, Mr. Wellet."

"Thanks for letting me jam with you guys, Herb."

"Pleasure to meet you, Mr. Wellet."

"Great to make your acquaintance, Mr. Wellet."

"Well, gall dang, it's mighty nice to meetcha, Mr. Wellet."

"It's great to meet you all," Herb said. "So this is a business gathering?"

"Sure is," Gideon replied. "Since my baking business was so successful, I ended up thinking that a good old party is what I needed to show my appreciation for all of the companies involved in the business. Real kinda ya to play for us, I might add."

"Oh, it's my pleasure." Herb turned to Nick. "So how's the force treating you?"

Nick laughed and put the drumstick back in his pocket. "Well, I-"

"Here, pull up a seat, you two." Gideon motioned for them to sit down in two of the empty chairs positioned at the table.

Judy sat back down in her seat, and Nick just so happened to notice that there was an empty seat next to her, in which he sat down. Herb ended up across from them, his shoulders barely making it above the table.

"Some of the funniest stories I've ever experienced in my life are from police work. For example, one day we got a call…"

"...and this-this guy was _clearly_ stoned out of his gourd, right?" Nick laughed a couple of minutes later, still telling the same story. "And the lab results backed it up, it turns out he was actually using some of the Mary Jane he was trying to sell to his customers, I guess he must have thought it would have been a better investment to roll a few joints for himself. At any rate, this lion's tearing down the street, high as a kite, pulling his pants up every seven steps or so because they're five sizes too big and he's wearin' 'em around his thighs - don't ask me how _that_ ever became a fashion statement - and me and Officer Francine are sort of putting in half of our best efforts into catching this guy, because we just think it's hilarious, and finally I get in front of him after he turns down a dead end. Officer Francine's behind him, he realizes what's going on, and he stops. That's when, on a whim, he throws his paws on his jeans and slides them all the way past his kneecaps and around his ankles. And you know what happened next? This guy - and I mean, this was classic - he looks at us and he yells out, 'You caught me with my pants down, Ossiffer!'"

Everyone at the table burst into hearty laughter. Even Judy cracked a smile. It was definitely one of the funnier duty stories she'd ever heard. Unlike Wolford's old "dead clown at the funhouse" story. That little adventure was frightening enough to make Chief Bogo afraid. He even confessed to being scared of it in front of the entire force, and then, of course, made every animal there swear to never tell another living soul that he was deathly afraid of clowns.

"Hey, Judy," Nick said, trying to get her to open up a little. "You ever had a funny encounter as a cop?"

Judy was going to start talking about the adventure they had had during the night howler caper, but stopped; she didn't want her father to get the wrong idea.

"Well," she said slowly, trying to recall an especially humorous time on duty. "I did have a speeding rhinoceros once who tried to bribe me into letting him go by giving me a box of unopened donuts."

Once again, the entire table laughed. It felt good, Judy thought to herself, it felt good to make people laugh in such a crazy time. Assuming a false identity, kidnapping a crime boss that was a lot wimpier than he let on, pretending that they needed some down time when in reality they were going to interrogate a suspect in their parent's storm cellar...Judy shuddered to think what would happen next.

"Well," Herb sighed, "we should probably get back on stage. See if we can keep rockin' 'til two minutes to midnight. I'll go get the guys."

Nick laughed. "I got that reference." No one else at the table did, apparently; Judy certainly didn't. Nick gave her a quick kiss on the lips.

"Love ya, Carrots," he said, taking the drumsticks back out of his pocket.

"Love you, too, Nick," she replied. "Have fun up there."

"I will."

Judy smiled and watched as Nick walked back to the stage, where the rest of the band began to reassemble. He sat down in the drummer's stool and shook his arms out, apparently trying to get pumped for the next song in the lineup.

"All right, Bunnyburrow!" Herb said into the microphone. "Let's see if we can't have a little bit more fun tonight, huh?"

"That was, bar none, the _best_ group of guys I've ever played with."

Nick was still freaking out over the band's exceptional performance. "I mean, I've been working on Alex's little drum riff for a really long time. You know how difficult it is to do that little double bass intro? And tonight was the one time I felt like I actually pulled it off."

"You should be a professional drummer, Nick," Judy's mom commented.

"I was thinking about being a music major, but then I realized that I was happier being a computer scientist." The family kept themselves talking about the night's festivities as they approached their home. Judy grabbed Nick gently by the elbow and guided him to the storm cellar.

"Well, guys, it was a great time, but Nick and I are going to bed. We've had a very long day."

"Okay, Judy," her mother said; her father looked at her like she was acting very suspicious. "Good night."

"Night, Mom."

"Good night, Mr. and Mrs. Hopps," Nick said, his arm still in Judy's grasp.

As they rounded the corner where the storm cellar was located, Judy looked at Nick and said, "Do you think you should grab your FURRIE from the car to complete the image?"

Nick squinted, thinking. "Well, I _am_ going to be out of sight, but you're right. Just in case he gets a glimpse of me." Suddenly, his ears laid back and he opened his mouth. His tongue curled and he closed his eyes, emitting a sound that sounded somewhat like a yawn. His facial muscles relaxed, and Nick was Nick again.

"Man, I'm tired. Okay, I'll go grab the FURRIE from the car. Don't go down there until I get back; I want to plan this out a bit more." Nick jogged back around the corner and disappeared from sight. Judy stood there, looking up at the overcast night. For some reason, she found a foggy night just as beautiful as a starry one. Something about it...The mysteriousness of what lay behind the curtain of water vapor, perhaps. It was poetic, in any case, and Judy couldn't imagine disliking such a phenomenon. The sound of footsteps and the whir of machinery told her that Nick was close. As he rounded the corner, Judy gasped.

Nick didn't look even remotely friendly. His ferret fur was pale white, and his one good eye was bloodshot with either drugs or insanity; the other was milky and had a scar across it. He was thin but muscular and had multiple wounds across his bare chest and arms. His military-patterned pants were loosely held around his torso at an angle that revealed more of his underclothes on one leg than the other. A knife holster hung on his side, sheathing an evil-looking dagger. He looked at Judy and said, in a voice that even sounded insane, "Carrots, I'm starting to second-guess my plan. This guy's bad news. I mean, I thought _Weaselton_ looked shady? This is ridiculous."

Judy tried not to scream in horror. "Well, as long as you keep up that charade, I'm sure Mr. Big will be more than scared of you. And at any rate, Duke Weaselton's behind bars again. His whole bootleg DVD operation got busted, last I heard."

"Good. That's what we need, after all. The bad guys in the clink, and a fat shrew in a dark, cold, uncomfortable dirt room. With the Ferret of Death looking at him like it's lunch time." Nick opened the double doors to the cellar and said, "Ladies first, Carrots."

Judy walked down into the dusty room. Not a single sign was given that Mr. Big had woken up yet. That was good; if he knew he was being interrogated somewhere underground, he'd be a little less cooperative, knowing that the people who kidnapped him clearly didn't have a big budget. She got down the stairs as quick as she could, and then positioned herself in the corner farthest away from where Nick was going to be working his magic. The fox came down, still in "abnormally large ferret" disguise mode, and turned the light on. Big was still out cold, and Judy now found herself wondering if he was indeed still alive. She watched as Nick took a cup of water and poured it on the shrew's head. Big woke up, coughing and sputtering, but wasn't fast enough to catch a glimpse of Nick as he retreated to the shadows.

"Wh-who's there?" Big said, still recovering from the downpour of water he had just been in.

Nick started laughing. It was more than sinister: it was pure evil. The way his maniacal laughter echoed throughout the dirt cave made the situation even more uncomfortable.

"Wouldn't _you_ like to know, Mr. Big Shot?"

"Why, you! When I get out of here, I'll -"

"Ooooh, tell me what the shrew's gonna do! When the shrew goes free, I'll be screwed!" More maniacal laughter accompanied the chilling limerick. "Whatcha gonna do, little shrew? Huh? Whatcha gonna do?"

"I _demand_ that you release me at once!"

Nick sighed. "Demand, demand, _demand_!" His voice escalated in anger with each repetition of the word. "That's all you high-and-mighties ever do, you _demand_!"

"What do you want? I can make it happen!"  
Nick assumed a high-pitched voice, mimicking the frightened mammal. "'Whatever you want, Mister Crazy-Man! I'll do whatever you want!' Shut up, shut up, _shut UP_! The time for groveling is past!" Something flew by Judy, and she heard Nick's voice coming from the other side of the room; he must have just moved.

"You leader types are all the same. You always think you're at the top of the mole hill, but the minute you get separated from your cannon-fodder henchmen, you turn into the vulnerable nobody you are.

"So then -" Nick's voice changed places again. "- what _shall_ we do with you, Mr. Big? I say, if ever there was an animal with an ironic nickname..."

"What do you want? Are you a cop?" Mr. Big was clearly getting less and less comfortable. His voice was shaking, and he looked very timid indeed in his chair.

"HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HAAAAA!" Nick's insane laughter echoed off the dirt walls. "Oh! Oh, that's rich! That is rich! Rich, indeed! Does this LOOK like something a law-abiding police officer might do?"

"Wh...Wait. Whataya insinuating?"

Judy heard Nick changing places again. " _Cops_ eat donuts. _Cops_ show their faces and tell you their names. _Cops_ interrogate you in an allegedly 'civilized' manner: a well-lit room, one-way glass, and a nice file to prove that they have something they can use against you." He spat the word "cops" as if it were a horrid insult. "Now I'll tell you what cops _don't_ do. _Cops_ don't tie you to the chair you're sitting in. _Cops_ don't apprehend a target without a warrant. _Cops_ don't put their victims under the one faintly glowing light present in the room. And cops _certainly_ don't wheel out a table of surgical equipment and assorted torture devices for your viewing pleasure. It simply doesn't work that way, Mr. Big. Oh, no. Dear me, a cop is one of the things I am most definitely not."

"W-Well, what do you want?" Mr. Big was starting to grovel again. "Is-is it money? Do you w-want a thorn removed from your side? I've got a nice group of mercenaries who will ice anyone you want! What about power? Do you want power? T-t-there's no r-reason to do an-anything hasty!"

"Your superiority just dwindles away whenever your life is at stake, doesn't it? How quaint..."

" _Just tell me what you want_!" Mr. Big had now achieved a sense of desperation.

"What I REQUIRE from you is information, Mr. Big. Specifically, I am - how should I put it? - out of the loop when it comes to the movement of the authorities. However, when I heard those two officers went missing...well, I was rather indignant."

"You want to know where the racer is? Fine! I'll track him down within twenty-four hours!"

"Ah-ah-ah…" Nick tutted. "Your eagerness betrays you, Mr. Big. I have already...taken care of the racer in question. He is no longer with us. Instead, I would like to know the location of the two officers who mysteriously disappeared. Should you provide me with sufficient information concerning their whereabouts, I shall let you free to live yet another day. But if you fail to do so...I'll be the last thing you'll never see."

Nick once again let forth with a cacophonic cackle. Judy knew it was only Nick, but it was like watching someone slowly torturing him until he bled out, snapping his bones and cutting him and depriving him of oxygen. It was like watching him painstakingly fade away until he was no more. She couldn't take it. She closed her eyes and weeped silently, fearing that Nick was actually going to lose his mind.

"Okay, okay!" Big gave into the crazy ferret's demands. "I know where they are, but I don't have them!"

"Well, that simply won't do, Mr. Big," Judy heard Nick say. Then she heard the sound of a knife being unsheathed. "That simply...won't...do."

"Wait, _wait_!" Big started panting. "They're being held captive by a prisoner who escaped from the prison!"

"And why should I believe this? An associate of yours, Mr. Kevin Kozlov, was at the scene of the crime and was reportedly dragging something out of view."

"I know! I was working with the inmate, and then she double-crossed us! We helped her escape the prison in return for a few favors, and she skipped town before we could collect on her services!"

"That, Mr. Big, is supposed to be impossible. I'm having a _very_ hard time accepting your story as the truth…"  
" _It was Bellwether! Bellwether played me, and she played the mafia!"_

Judy's heart froze. No, she thought. Not Bellwether. It couldn't be.

"Bellwether, you say?"

"Surely you know that she was arrested for the night howler conspiracy! She broke out after we got her the keys from one of the cops. We hid it in one of her square meals. Somehow, she sneaked onto my compound, grabbed the two cops you're looking for, and escaped with them in her custody before my forces had any idea what was going on."

"Well, that's some nice background information, but...it's far from the location that I'm looking for."  
" _I...don't...know!_ She skipped town! I have no idea where she is!"  
A long, uncomfortable silence ensued. Judy couldn't believe what she was hearing. Bellwether was back? That couldn't be possible. She was a maximum-security prisoner. How did she break out? And where could she be? If she had left Zootopia, she could be anywhere. And if she wanted revenge, she would find them eventually. What on earth could she be plotting now?

"Well, now, Mr. Big." Nick had an air of finality in his voice. "Thank you. You have been _very_ unhelpful. Now, why don't you go back to your box?"

"Wait! _Wait!_ Don't put me back in there! It's cramped and stuffy! No! Wait!" The mafia leader's pleas became muffled as Nick closed the box around him. He put the box in a corner and placed a rock on top of it, ensuring that Big couldn't escape, before turning the light off. He turned to Judy and said, "Well, that was unexpected. Not only is Bellwether back in the game, but Big got much more afraid than I thought he would. It was probably the voice and stuff."  
Judy was still in a state of great fear, fear of Bellwether's plans, fear of what had happened to Wolford and McHorn, fear of Nick. Yes, it was Nick underneath that emotionless psycho, but it was like he was enjoying assuming the character, like he embraced the chaos that came with insanity. It became too much, and as ferret-Nick approached her, she started crying again.

"Hey," Nick said softly, or as softly as the ferret could talk. "Hold on." He pushed the button and once again became the fox she loved, and she felt a bit better about his getting closer to her, though she was still crying. "Come here, Judy." He wrapped his arms around her and held her close. It was becoming a habit they had, comforting each other nearly almost every day. As they huddled in the corner, enjoying each other's company, Judy let out a sigh of satisfaction. They belonged here, in this dirt corner, together. They belonged on the force together. They belonged in an abandoned museum with a deranged sheep watching them...and they belonged together in that museum. They just...belonged together. Judy didn't care if they were dirt poor and starving. As long as they were together, everything was meant to be.

"Nick…" she started.

"Ssh," he reassured her; the method worked at least somewhat. "I'm here. I'm right here."

"W..when you were...talking to Big…" She looked into his eyes, sure her fear was visible to the tender fox. "Did you...enjoy p-pretending to be...that...that _thing_?"  
Nick placed a prolonged kiss on her forehead before he answered.

"Of course not, Carrots," he told her with a kind smile on his face. "It was just me getting into character. I wish I didn't have to, but...Wolford and McHorn are counting on us. And I'm not going to let them die because of my own self-interests."

That was the selfless Nick Judy knew and loved. She allowed herself to relax, letting go of all tension in her muscles and wrapped her arms about the middle of Nick's back.

"This feels...right," she told him as she embraced him. "I-I know it shouldn't, but-"

Nick shushed her gently. "It's okay, Carrots. You don't have to explain it. If we could truly understand love, then what would be the point in believing in it?"

Judy smiled contentedly, nuzzling Nick's chin with the top of her head. "Hold me close, Nick. I don't ever want this to go away." She hadn't even noticed that she had stopped crying.

"Don't worry, Judy. I'm not going anywhere."

"What do we do about Bellwether, Nick? Do you have any ideas?"

"No, I don't. Not yet." He pulled her closer. "But let's not worry about that now. Just sleep."

Judy's sensitive ears told her that Mr. Big was no longer making noise. "You know we have a little bit of privacy down here," she said, her mind on things much different than sleep.

"Look, Judy," Nick said. "I'd love nothing more than to play tonsil hockey and do a bit of genetic coding with you, but do you really think it's smart for us to exchange more than numbers, at this point? I mean, you dad would probably stop at nothing to frame my severed tail above his fireplace if he would out we did it."

Judy sighed, a bit disappointed. "You're right. But we can't put this off forever, Nick. This is going to happen eventually, and when it does, be ready."

Nick chuckled wearily. "Fair enough. But for now, can we just go to bed? There's a crazy convict on the loose and if we want to catch her, we have to get some shuteye."

Judy closed her eyes. "You know, this will be the second night in a row I've fallen asleep on your chest. We're making quite the habit of cuddling."

Nick sighed. "I don't mind it in the slightest," the sleepy answer came. "You bunnies…" he yawned. "...So emotional."

When Judy woke up, she panicked. The world was black and that she couldn't see anything; then she remembered she was in a hole in the ground that allowed no light to pierce the darkness. She got up as quickly and quietly as she could, so as not to wake Nick, and went to ig's corner. Using her left paw, she felt for the box. Yep, it was still there, and the rock was still on top of it. Big wasn't going anywhere anytime soon.

"Oh, good, you're awake."

Judy was startled to hear Nick's voice. "I thought you were-"

"Nope. I'm an early riser, Carrots. Turning the light on." Nick flipped the switch, and Judy averted her eyes, nearly blinded by the luminous bulb; she really needed get outdoor if this low-power light was making her eyes hurt.

"So Big is still in the box, as I'm sure you know, the sun's up already, and I had a nice talk with your dad."

Oh boy, Judy thought. "What did he say?"

"Well, he said something along the lines of, 'I was wrong for distrusting you based on your race, and I think you're a great boyfriend for any woman to have, my daughter included.'" He looked at her, wearing a face that read "thank God". "So, thank your lucky stars that we didn't betray his trust and that we were able to resist having sex last night."

"Yeah, no kidding." Judy was still a little unhappy that she didn't get Nick to open up a bit, but...the day would come when it would happen. She didn't know exactly when, but it would happen. "So what do we do about Bellwether?"

Nick scratched his head as he started back up the steps. "I have a theory, but only a theory."

Judy was intrigued. "Do tell, Mr. Wilde."

"You're not gonna like it."  
"I'm willing to hear whatever you've got."

Nick looked at her as he opened the hatch to the surface. "It involves our resident muffin man."

Judy was confused. "Gideon?"

"Yep," Nick said matter-of-factly. "Of course, I don't know if he _actually_ sells muffins, but what with it being a food business and all…" He waved his hand dismissively. "Anyway, if there's one thing I know, it's that Big likes having company with powerful people. If Gideon's getting exceptional business, then Big would have no problems trying to cozy up to him. With this in mind -" Nick put both paws on the wooden square frame that held the doors in place and vaulted himself out into the open, then turned around and looked at Judy. "-we should probably go give Gideon a visit."

"I don't know, Nick," Judy said, hesitant to believe that Gideon had fallen back into his old ways. Her skepticism increased every time she scaled another step on the staircase. "When I saw him during the Otterton case, he made it pretty clear that he was trying everything he could to clean up his act?"  
"Carrots, crime is just like an addiction: Once you start, it's hard to stop, and even if you can stop, it's exponentially more difficult to resist the temptation." Nick offered his hand to Judy, which she accepted. "I speak from - ungh! - experience," he finished as Judy felt him hauling her over the wood frame and onto the ground.

"You're slipping back into hustles?" Judy asked him, dusting herself off.

"Oh, no, nothing like that. I just…" Nick sighed. "When I was still a minor and doing hustles with Finnick, I tried getting out of it. But even in college, when I could have been valedictorian, I was still making cash with that midget." His featured made him now look more depressed than anything. "And then...I left."

Judy knew something was wrong; what happened to being "expelled my junior year?"

"You _left_?" she asked him incredulously.  
Nick hung his head. "I don't want to talk about it." His tone was short and quiet. Clearly, there was something much darker about ihs years on college than he let on. The whole "don't let them know they get to you" thing was rearing its ugly head again.

"Okay," Judy said quietly, putting a caring paw along his lower spine. "I won't ask."

"Thanks." Nick sounded truly grateful; no cover-up emotions were on display, or at least, none that Judy could pick up. "So, off to see the baker, then. Let's just make sure he doesn't try and weasel his way out of answering our questions. Er, that is, metaphorically weaseling."

"We'll be taking your car, then?" Judy asked as they walked around to the front of the house.

"Yep, and we won't even have to use the FURRIEs. Which is good, because I left mine in your house and your dad made it clear he wasn't happy about it being there when we talked this morning. So actually, I should probably go get it anyway. Be back in a jiff."  
Judy folded her arms and chuckled as Nick jogged into her house. A few seconds later, he came back, holding his suit about the neck area, and they walked together to Nick's car. Judy opened the passenger door and sat down, but was surprised to have her foot bump something under the seat. With her left paw, she felt for whatever was down there and, upon finding it, discovered that it was a police scanner. Well, then...why would Nick have a scanner in his car and not even have the common sense to put it on the dash? As Nick clambered into his vehicle, having tossed his FURRIE in the trunk along with Judy's, Judy held the scanner up with a disapproving look on her face. Nick looked at it, then looked at her, then back at the scanner again, a look of confusion never leaving his face.

"So?" he asked.

"So, you have a direct hotline to the Zootopia Police Department, and you'd rather have me contact my parents so we can stay with them for a few days - which you weren't originally on board with, I might add - as opposed to getting Clawhauser on the horn for different solution?"

Nick looked at her with the same confused complexion he had given since he saw her holding the scanner. "Uhh...yeah," he said shortly. "Two things: first off, this is my own car. I don't want it to look like a detective's vehicle, so I keep the scanner off the dash. Second off - and this is important, Carrots - we're on a deep-cover mission, remember? If we talk to anyone via the scanners, anyone could be listening. Criminals tune into scanners all the time to monitor police traffic. Now, put that back under the seat so we can figure out if Gray has a part in this or not."

Judy sighed. She was annoyed about the fact that Nick was right about the "no cop contact" aspect of their assignment; talking to any of the officers at the ZPD would tip off all the criminals that were potentially listening in, and that would get Wolford and McHorn killed for sure...that is, if they weren't already dead. She put the scanner back under the seat, and Nick started the car. Off they drove to -

"Oh, yeah, huh?" Nick said. "I have no idea where Gray lives."

Judy groaned, laying her ears back in frustration. "Keep going down this road for about five minutes, turn left, then take the second right. His house will be that one."

"Hey, another thing, Carrots," Nick added, though it sounded like more of an afterthought than anything else. "I doubt he's going to take us seriously if we don't have our cop uniforms on. I mean, you look like a cowgirl - which makes you look smoking hot, trust me - and I've got a Hawaiian shirt on with a necktie that's an heirloom from my father."

Judy was still trying to understand his comment. "Did you just call me 'hot'?"

Nick looked over at her. "Well, you are!" he said mock-defensively.

Judy smiled and pecked him on the muzzle, a task much harder to do in a moving vehicle than she originally thought. "Thanks, Nick. That was sweet."

Nick blushed. "Okay then. But seriously, did you bring your badge?"

Judy flipped out her golden shield. "Never leave home without it," she said cheerfully.

Nick nodded his head. "Good. That makes two of us."

Judy felt her phone vibrate in her pocket; she pulled it out and looked at the number. It seemed familiar, but she couldn't quite remember exactly where she had seen it.

"Nick, do you recognize that number?" She held the phone up so he could see it. He looked at it and jerked his head back lightly, clearly not able to understand why whoever it was had called Judy's phone.

"That's Gideon's. I saw that number next to his name on the contact list your mother had posted on the refrigerator."

"How do you know it was my mother?"

"Please. Neat handwriting? Men?" Nick laughed derisively. "I think I speak for most of the male animal populace when I say that cursive is definitely _not_ my go-to font."

A little bit miffed from Nick's social commentary, Judy pressed the green button on the screen. "Hello?"

 _"Judy! It_ is _you!"_ Gideon sounded relieved and a little preoccupied; there was nervousness in his voice.

"Gideon? What's wrong?" Judy looked at Nick with uncertainty, and received a similar gaze in return.

 _"Listen, I, uh...mighta gotten in cahoots with the local crime boss, Mr. Big, and...well...it would seem that he, uh...ain't too happy with my decisions lately. He got a couple guys out at the fronta my door, an' they're armed."_

"Are they close?"

 _"They're outside my house right now, and I've never shot a gun before, but I will if I have to!"_

"Okay, Gideon, don't shoot anyone. Now is not the time to be a hero. Get to a place you know is safe and we'll swing by. How many of them are there, and is there anyone else with you in the house?"

 _"There's three of 'em: two wolves and an arctic fox. And there ain't no one in here with me yet, but they could come in at any time. Please hurry, Judy! I don't want to hafta shoot 'em!"_

"Gideon, calm down. You won't have to shoot anyone. Just get to a safe spot and we'll be there as soon as we can." She hung up on him and looked at Nick. "Change of plans, Nick. Gideon was business partners with Big, and now that Big's out of the picture, his henchmen think Gideon kidnapped him. So they sent a couple of thugs to take care of him. We've got to get over there... _now_."

Judy felt Nick step on the gas as they tore off to save her old nemesis, almost starting a dust storm as they went.

Nick reached into the backseat and brought back his paw, which was now holding a police-issue pistol. "There's another of these and a SWAT standard issue Remington 870 pump-action shotgun loaded with beanbag rounds in the backseat. Get a paw on either of them, I honestly don't care if we're going to kill them or not at this point."

The comment frightened Judy; was Nick really unaffected by the taking of a life? As Judy looked for the shotgun with her paw, the thought of Nick becoming that cold, heartless ferret stuck in her brain. Could there be a chance that Nick might eventually deteriorate into an apathetic, decadent machine? Might he one day lose all emotions and, perhaps, his mind? Could the Nicholas P. Wilde she saw today become a mere shadow of what he was now? She purged the thoughts from her head. That was ridiculous. There was no way Nick was going to go through so drastic a change. He was a loving, caring Nick Wilde now, and he would be a loving, caring Nick Wilde for the rest of his life. She found the shotgun with her paw, loaded a round in the chamber, and put it in her lap. Okay, she thought to herself. Business as usual….


	7. IAATG (It's All About the Groin)

Judy watched Gideon's front door apprehensively. Two vehicles were parked on the sidewalk near his home: one was his company truck, the other was a jet black and ominous-looking sedan. Judy held her shotgun at the ready. As Nick parked right behind the black car, he loaded his own pistol, preparing for the possibly violent events to momentarily take place.

"Okay," he said. "Standard breach and clear. I'll breach, you clear."

"Got it," Judy replied. The thrill of the chase set in as she closed the door: the adrenaline pumping through her veins, the sharpening of her senses, the sudden desire for action...and she loved it. It was what really got her going, but not only that, it what she wanted to do. What a great feeling it was, to save the lives of animals at the mercy of a criminal! Judy took her position, bracing her left side against Gideon's front door. Nick came up, took the other side, and held up his closed paw. He straightened a finger as he mouthed _One, two, three_. When he reached the third finger, he slammed his foot into the door with all his might, shattering the lock and making the door fly open. Judy went in, her gun raised; ready to defend herself against any possible attackers. She scanned the room. No sign of Gideon...or Big's men. Judy, knowing that it was all clear, looked back at Nick and gave the signal for him to move up. She flattened herself against another wall that turned a corner and moved along it silently, hoping for any sign of other life forms in the building. Nothing.

Judy kept advancing along the wall, taking silent steps so as not to be heard. She looked back at Nick and jerked her head, motioning for her to take the lead. She stopped and allowed the fox to pass her, holding his pistol at the ready. He checked the next room, apparently the kitchen, quickly, and gave the move-up signal. Judy once again got in front of him and slid up against the wall again, making sure she couldn't be heard and treading on the balls of her feet. But before she reached the corner, a sniffing sound and a familiar voice came from around the corner.

"What the bloody hell?"

It was the wolf, the wolf from Big's compound! He was here! Judy raised a clenched paw with her elbow bent at ninety degrees, signaling for Nick to stop. She got down on her knees and peered around the corner. It was the wolf, all right. He looked like he was suspicious of something, and his nose was sniffing madly. What was more, he had pulled out a gun and was pointing it at whatever could be behind the wall. Judy pulled her head back behind cover and stood up, ignoring the voice in her head that was screaming at her to run. Now she was the one counting fingers. _One, two, three!_ She didn't even wait for Nick; she came out from behind cover and fired her shotgun. The wolf literally howled in pain; he had more than likely been expecting a shot to the head, but Judy's target was lower. She heard Nick whine like a puppy behind her, clearly sympathizing with the wolf, who was now rolling around on the floor and grabbing one of his more sensitive areas in agony.

Judy pumped the shotgun, deeply enjoying the _chk-chk_ sound it made. "Down, boy," she said cockily, throwing the strap over her shoulder so she didn't have to carry it in her paws. Then the wolf bit back with something she would never have expected.

"Did you...have to go for the twins, Hopps? Trying to...damn...prune my family tree, I presume…"

The wolf's question threw Judy's train of thought way off. "How do you know my name?"

"Oh, that's right, I forgot I was in this bloody suit." The wolf pushed his wrist with his paw, and Mr. Big's grunt transmogrified into…

"Chief Bogo?" Judy's mouth dropped open.

"What?" The buffalo got to his feet, still clutching his crotch; with his FURRIE latched on to him, he looked much more intimidating than he looked without it. "I was doing some investigative work, what's illegal about that? And furthermore, why did you have to go all 'ballbusters' on me?"

Nick responded to the question, now walking up to Judy's side while he holstered his pistol and watched his superior officer with a rather amused look. "Well, she _did_ think that you were part of one of the most notorious criminal organizations in all of Zootopia."  
A thought occurred to Judy. "Hey, speaking of, weren't there _three_ henchmen instead of one?"

"There still are, Carrots," Nick explained. "Chief just tied them up and put them in the closet of the first room of the house. You know, the one _you_ cleared?"

Judy was a bit offended. "Oh, so it was my fault?"

"No, no, I'm not saying that," Nick chuckled with a dismissive paw. "Although yes, you did miss the fact that two suspects were already in custody. Anyway, they're back there."  
The chief looked a bit surprised. "That's actually exactly correct. How did you know that?"

Nick's smug look never left his face as he inspected his paw. "There were drag marks on the carpet that indicated something dragged two bodies across the floor. And voila, the drag marks led to the closet."

Judy stared at him in awe.

He looked at her, a bit confused by her reaction. "What? I told you I was hyper observant, right?" Nick turned to address the chief again.

"Which is the reason I _also_ know that you were here on business based on intel suggesting that our wannabe victim, Gideon Grey, had a business partnership with Mr. Big."

"Right again, Wilde," the chief said, almost as if he were resentful of the fact that Nick was able to tell him everything about both what had happened and what was going to happen. "How'd you figure it out? Blueberry stain on my boot?"

"No, but there _is_ a small blood stain on your left sock." Nick laughed after he watched the chief inspect his sock to see if Nick was telling the truth. "Pulling your hoof, chief. There was a file you had just happened to leave on your desk when you were chewing us out. You had two papers in it: one had Big's mug shot on it, the other had a photo of Grey on it. You had circled both their faces in - what was it? Green Sharpie or something?" The chief snorted after he heard the question.

"I'll take that as a yes, then," Nick said, continuing his explanation. "You had circled their faces in green Sharpie and had written yourself a note in pen that said, 'Business together?' And that led me to conclude that whether they were trying to make cash or whether they were trying to make...something else. It happens, apparently."

The thought of Big and Grey being "business" partners made Judy's gag reflex activate. " _Nick_!" she cried out. "That's disgusting! What the Ga _zelle_ 's wrong with you?"

"Sorry," Nick said sheepishly. "Ever since we pretended to be secret-rendezvous polar bears underneath that waterfall, my mind's been getting progressively dirtier and dirtier."

"Wait. Those bonkers were actually _you_ two?" The chief jumped back into the conversation.

Nick blushed...a lot. Judy felt her face burn with red as well. "Uhh...so you were there for that whole thing?" she asked, hoping with all her mind that the answer was no.

"I've been undercover ever since I sent you two on your mission! Of course I saw that! And that poor Balto bloke had to see it, too..."

"Wait." Nick sounded a little annoyed. "Are you telling me that you had a lead and didn't tell us?"

"You're speaking to a superior officer, Wilde!" Clearly, Bogo didn't like Nick's tone of voice.

"Are you telling me you had a lead and didn't tell us, _sir_?" Nick hastily corrected himself.

"Yes, I did. I had a lead on _my_ case. Not yours. You're supposed to be finding Wolford and McHorn."

Judy chimed in. "Chief, our search has led us here. Big told us that someone else was holding them captive, and now that we know that Gideon was dealing under the table with Big, we wanted to see if he could lead us to wherever Bellwether's keeping those two."

"Well, ask him yourself," the chief said, motioning for the two to progress to the next room "He refuses to leave the couch, and he's sitting there with an automatic rifle. I wouldn't get on his bad side any time soon."

"Thanks, Chief," Judy said, walking past him. "We really appreciate it."

The room looked very comfortable: soft chairs, luxury carpet, a glass table, and other assorted furniture were positioned throughout the room strategically. And right in the middle, twenty feet from the small box TV, sat Gideon, an AR-15 in his paws. He looked at Judy, scared at first, then relieved.

"Oh, it's you, Judy," he sighed. "I was fearin' the worst!"

"No, everything's fine, Gideon." Judy gave it a second thought. "Actually, Gideon, I lied. Not everything's fine."  
"Well, sit down an' tell me 'bout it."

Judy was hesitant. "Could you put the gun down, please?"

"Oh, yeah." Gideon hastily put the safety on and lay the gun on the glass table, facing away from Judy.

"Thanks, Gideon," Judy said as she sat down next to him, putting the shotgun on the couch cushion. She watched Nick and the chief walk into the room as Gideon started the conversation.

"So what's eatin' ya, Judy?" he asked her earnestly.

Judy sighed. "Well, I don't know if you heard any of whatever we just said." She stopped; how would she say it without sounding confrontational? "Gideon, we have reason to believe that you've been doing business with Mr. Big, the crime boss."  
Gideon's eyes couldn't hide his guilt. He took a deep breath and exhaled, paws in the prayer position as he held them under his muzzle.

"Okay, Judy," he said. "I admit it."  
Judy looked at Nick, who was clearly not happy; he must have been hoping that this could have just been a misunderstanding, and that a fox wouldn't have been doing anything illegal.

"It happened about a couple months ago," Gideon began. "A couple'a wolves in suits came to the door and said they wanted to make me a deal. They said they had some new blueberry sauce or some such that they had come up with for pies, and they wondered if I was interested in buyin' some of their stock.. How could I have said no? I thought they were legit. Then when the night howler was all the rage, I realized I had made a terrible mistake. So I stopped selling pies with their serum in 'em. I recalled all the pies we'd distributed that hadn't already been bought, and we destroyed 'em. Took 'em waaay out in the middle'a nowhere and burned 'em. Then whenever their shipments of serum came in, I secretly got ridda those too. Of course, once everything was all dandy again, they got suspicious.

"Big said he was more than disappointed that I hadn't honored our agreement. Said I had disrespected him. Said that now, since I had tried to double-cross him, I had to keep using the stuff or...well, you know these big, bad crime bosses. Their whole 'do what I say or die' routine is actually pretty effective. I told him I would. And I did. But here's the thing: I used such small amounts of the night howler serum in each pie that there was no possible way it could affect a predator. Unless, of course, they consumed nothing but three whole blueberry pies in the course of two hours. And I had enough resources to keep up the charade...but then Big got suspicious again. And that was what just happened. The phone call, the shapeshifting buffalo, the whole durn thing."

"That's something I was wondering about." Judy turned to the chief. "How did you get the FURRIE to recreate an animal smaller than you?"

"Isn't it obvious, Carrots?"

Nick's maddeningly smug tone was back again. Judy was determined to figure it out, to show im that he wasn't the only one smart enough to notice things and deduce quickly based on what he saw. She inspected the chief's FURRIE, trying to catch any inconsistencies between hers and his. But nothing presented itself. Wait! Judy noticed a small, camera-looking object in the back of Chief Bogo's suit.

"There's a camera here. But what does the suit use it for?"

"Great deduction, Carrots," Nick smiled approvingly. "Well, that camera, I assume, captures whatever's behind the chief. The suit, I believe, takes that image and projects it onto the wearer wherever it isn't mirroring the animal the wearer wants to pose as. There are a couple of problems that present themselves, but it's a really good idea overall. I assume you got Jay to work out a special-order FURRIE, Chief?"

"All right, I'll admit he made this one better than the others, but they all function perfectly."

"Guys, I don't mean to be rude," Judy said, "but can we get back to the case at hand?" She knew that they were losing time, time that maybe Wolford and McHorn didn't have. She turned to Gideon.

"Gideon, you're not the only one Mr. Big's threatening. Two other officers have gone missing, and we think that he's the one behind it all." She was lying; even though Gideon would most likely be chomping at the bit to nab Bellewether as much as he would Mr. Big, he had had personal experience with the latter, and Judy knew from her training that animals are more willing to help if they believe that the animal intimidating them is also intimidating others like them. Gideon looked up at her.

"The best I can give you is that Mr. Big's goonies were talkin' 'bout some quote-unquote little piggies that they was keepin' hostage in a secret lab down in the Rainforest District somewhere. So either they was referrin' to your police buddies, or they have some actual pigs that looked too good to resist after a few blueberry pies."

A chill went down Judy's spine. "Or animal testing. They could be doing animal testing."

Gideon's eyes widened. "That's some messed-up stuff right there, Judy. I hope them police officers aren't having to go through that."

A growl echoed throughout the room. Judy looked around, trying to figure out what had just happened. Then she saw Nick clutching his stomach and looking at it as if he were mentally telling it to stop. After a few seconds, he realized everyone was looking at him.

"What?" he said defensively. "I didn't get breakfast."

"Oh, uh, help yourself to anything in the fridge, Officer," Gideon said.

"Much obliged, Mr. Grey." Nick walked off to the kitchen, and Judy turned back to Gideon.

"Look, Gideon, if Big's men have already started going after you, they're not going to stop any time soon. Let us take you under witness protection. That way, they won't be able to touch you. Now, granted, a cell isn't very preferable to your own home, but believe you me, it'll be much more secure. You'd have round-the-clock guards, digestible food, a comfortable bed, everything. At least until the whole thing dies down. After we arrest as many of Big's henchmen as we can, we'll let you go back to your normal civilian life."

Gideon didn't look too happy. "But...Judy, my business...If I'm gone for that long, I'll be ruined!"  
Judy put a reassuring paw on his arm. "I understand that. And let me remind you: whether you go under protection or not is entirely up to you. We're not going to force you under our care."

Gideon gave a shaky sigh. "Can I have some time to think it over?"

Judy glanced at the chief, who gave a silent nod, arms folded into a very authoritative-looking position.

"Okay, Gideon," she told him. "You can think it over."

"Thanks." Gideon gave her a grateful look just as Nick came walking back into the room, except he was now holding a large can of...was that an Animal energy drink? Yep, that neon green "A" on the can that looked like a claw mark and the black background behind it made it indisputable: Nick was having an energy drink first thing in the morning. He popped the tab open and took a swig. Judy looked at him, both surprised and disgusted.

"What's wrong with you?" she cried out as he gulped down the unhealthy carbonated sugar water.

Nick gave a sigh of satisfaction, then started to converse with her. "Oh, so now it's a crime to drink Animal for breakfast? Come on, most mornings in college I had cold leftover pizza and frozen waffles. I'm a carboholic, don't judge," he added, as if that explained his unnatural adolescent actions. He paused and looked up at his eyebrows, like he had just remembered something. "And then there was that one day I had that pint of ice cream…What a lovely 'Final Exam Day' _that_ was."

"You know those are really, _really_ unhealthy, right, Nick? Especially at eight in the morning?"

Nick gave Judy a smug look of mock-defiance and a sly, toothy grin as he brought the can up to his lips and started lapping at the formula with his tongue.

"Uggh!" Judy exclaimed. "Nick, that's terrible!"  
"I could make it even more sensually awkward if you wanted."  
"For the love of _God_ , Wilde, drink that thing like a normal fox!" the chief butted in.

Nick gulped a couple of mouthfuls in rapid succession, then shook his head a few times, his ears flapping around as he did so. "Whoo, that's a kick! Who needs meth and cocaine when you have a nice sixteen-ounce Animal?"

"You _do_ realize that you're going to suffer a massive sugar crash later today, don't you?"

"Yeah, yeah, I know, but I say live for the moment." Nick continued to drink from the can. "Plus, we foxes are cute when we fall asleep. We just...sort of-" He shrugged. "Look natural when we pass out. You ever seen a fox sleeping?"

"Yeah, when I shot you in the butt with a tranquilizer after you tried your little 'lights out' disappearing act. And let me tell ya, there's no way you could have passed as cute during that little episode, what with your face pancaked into the ground and all that. I'm actually surprised your muzzle isn't even the slightest bit flattened."

Nick clearly didn't like the comment, but he just remained silent and took another sip of the drink. "So what's new since I left for Mr. Grey's fridge?"

"We've offered Mr. Grey witness protection, Wilde," the chief explained.

"Has he reached a verdict, Chief?"

"He's still thinking about it."

Nick looked at him. "Mr. Grey, take all the time you need."

Gideon ran his face through his paws, stopped, sighed, and said, "I really appreciate the offer, folks, but I'm gonna hafta say no."

"Fair enough," the chief said.

"Okay, then, Gideon," Judy said, a little disappointed that he didn't want their help. "We'll leave you be."

"Oh, no we won't, Carrots," Nick said. "Not until we're sure the other two bozos aren't the only ones trying to kill Mr. Grey." He looked the the chief. "Chief, are the two intruders still conscious?"

"If they can resist passing out after my hoof connects with their jaw, I'll buy them all the root beer they can drink."

"Did you happen to get their radios?"

The chief gave him a look that seemed to ask him if he was all right. "There _were_ no radios on them."

"Phones, then," Nick said, swigging from the Animal can. "I mean, if you guys are like me, you're on your phones all the time. Although some of us can resist the temptation of seeing our faces on a sparkly-underwear-clad tiger dancing with Gazelle, am I right, Chief?"  
The chief looked furious. "If any of you three ever utter a word about that, I'll -"

"Chief, chillax. I'm just kidding. You're not gonna have to force-feed me my pancreas anytime soon. But my point remains valid. They're probably sporting their smartphones in their pockets constantly. Sooooo…" Nick paused, then mimicked Jay's operatic "Wait for iiiiiit…" almost perfectly. "Mr. Big must use their numbers as a primary source of communication. Hold it, Carrots, I'm on a roll," he added. Judy, who wanted to address the figurative elephant in the room, closed her mouth, knowing that he was probably going to bring up the fact that most criminals use burners. Sure enough, he started talking about what they would do if the henchmen had temporary phones. "Even if they have burner cells, they'll most likely still be working. So, here's my brilliant theory. We get those phones, we find out what the organization's next move is. Well, technically, it's a disbanded organization - I mean, we _did_ kidnap their leader, right?"

"Wait. You _kidnapped_ him?" The chief sounded angry.

"You said, and I quote, 'Do whatever you have to do to get those two back.' Then you started talking about how you hate having to tell families that their cop relative died and stuff like that. Back on topic, you told us to do whatever we had to to get Wolford and McHorn back. Apparently, it takes kidnapping the head of the mafia to make it happen."

Bogo looked miffed, but Judy knew he couldn't say anything; Nick had a point, and a valid one at that.

"All right, fair enough," the buffalo finally admitted. "Actually, I was sort of hoping you'd throw the rulebook out the window on this one." His features darkened. "The higher-ups have been riding me about the fact that we haven't gotten any results."

Judy felt a tinge of indignance. "It hasn't even been five days yet! How do they expect us to have results if we've only been working the case for a few days?"

Nick offered his solution. "The superiors want what the superiors want, I guess. Now if we've finished, there are still two burners we need to get."

"I'll go, Nick." Judy's spirit perked up at the chance to do some detective work. She walked past the slender, soon-to-suffer-a-sugar-crash fox and the towering, timeline-pressured pachyderm, and as she did, she heard Nick say, "I, uh...guess I'd better go with her." Good thing too, Judy thought to herself - she had already forgotten where the closet in question was.

She heard Nick's shoes following her, and she turned ninety degrees to let him get in front of her; it was her not-so-subtle way of letting him know that she had no idea where she needed to go. Nick seemed to have picked up on this, because he gave her a teasing smile as he kept his Animal in a loose but firm paw. "Are you wost, you wascawwy wabbit?" he said in a comical voice, taking yet another sip of the Animal.

"Ha-ha, very funny," Judy said sarcastically. "Just show me where the two half-wits are."

"Sorry," he said. "This stuff works _fast_. I already feel twice as crazy as normal."

As they reentered the room they first breached, Nick set his Animal on the nearest table and skipped over to a small door, his arms flapping with each skip and a goofy, toothy smile on his face as he said, "Lemme show ya somethin'." Yeah, Judy told herself. The Animal's definitely working its magic on him. He opened the door, and two wolves tumbled out of a small closet, unconscious. He turned around with the same goofy, toothy smile on his face and said, "There ya have it: the Hide and Seek Champions of 2016. Any questions?" He immediately resumed his normal personality and dug through one of the wolves's pockets until he found a small keypad phone. He brought it out and said, "Hmm. 'New text message' from someone called 'The Boss.' Must be Big." Nick twisted his mouth into a frown that was almost U-shaped, but only for a moment, before looking back at Judy.

"I didn't know they made phones small enough for rodents," he commented.

"Says the guy who was pursuing, what was it, a _bachelor_ 's degree in computer science?" Judy found his limited tech knowledge a bit suspicious. Wouldn't he have known that?

Nick pushed a button on the phone and read the text: "'Attention everyone, it's the boss. There's no way to play nice now. I've been kidnapped by an insane weasel.'" Nick chuckled before continuing on. "' And, for a change, it's not Weaselton this time. The pigs' - the cops, not literal pigs, but I'm sure you picked up on that already, Carrots - 'The pigs are going to pay for letting this lowlife run rampant.'" Nick's eyes widened in fear and he shook his head slowly, still horrified at what he was reading. "Oh, no. No, no, no, nonononono -"

"What is it?" Judy asked, her rabbit instincts telling her to feel overwhelmingly dreadful.

Nick looked at her, no falsification in his eyes. "Carrots. It's bad. Listen..." He turned back to the phone. "'That one pig, Hopps. Her entire family lives in Bunnyburrow about two hundred miles outside Zootopia. That'll be the easiest target for us to send a message. Grab five cars, fit as many heavily-armed guys inside them as you can, and burn the whole place down. If you see any rabbits, don't hesitate to shoot them.'" Nick covered his mouth with his paw and gave a sound of disbelief. "'And if anyone wants to indulge in a bit of night howler, let 'em. These so-called upstanding citizens of the community need to be taught a lesson, and if that means tearing into innocent rabbits, then by all means…'" Nick stopped; it was clearly hard for him to read it to himself, much less out loud. "'By all means skip breakfast, because the rabbit meat is good and plenty, and they won't care. They're explosive breeders anyway.'"

Judy's heart dropped. They were going to attack her entire family and burn their home to the ground! She couldn't stop the knot from rising in her throat and the tears leaking from her eyes. Nick threw the burner against the wall, shattering it, and walked past Judy towards Gideon's living room, grabbing his Animal as he went. He tilted his head back and guzzled the drink while he walked, then crushed the can in a furious paw.

"CHIEF!" he shouted.

"What is it, Wilde?" The chief sounded resentful that he was being interrupted by the fox.

"Call in all available units to converge at the residence of Bonnie and Stu Hopps. We need backup." Nick grabbed the shotgun Judy had left on the couch and pumped it repeatedly, round after round falling out onto the floor.

"Are you giving me orders now, Wilde?" the chief asked, now more angry.

"I'm sorry, sir, but hundred of civilians will die if we don't get over there now. The mafia called a hit on Officer Hopps's family. They're sending five cars and a bunch of predators that have ingested night howler, and they're getting ready to shoot, burn, and eat Judy's entire family." Nick dug around in his pocket. "God!" he said shortly, slamming his fist against the wall. "All my buckshot's in the car!"

"Wait a minute." Gideon got up. "Y'all's family's in danger?" He seized his AR-15. "I'm'a comin' with ya!"

Judy put a paw out in front of her. "Gideon, that's very thoughtful of you, but we can't put any civilians in danger. It's protocol."

"Yeah? Well, I don't care about your protocol!" Gideon retorted fiercely. "I'm comin' with ya, an' that's that!"

"Look, Gideon, I appreciate it, I really do. But we can't -"

"What? You can't _trust_ me?" Gideon looked extremely upset.

"Mr. Grey, we only have your best interests at heart," the chief said, calmly but authoritatively. "That's why it's best if you stay here while we sort things out."

Gideon seemed ready to explode with anger, but he gave a quick, deep, frustrated sigh and held out his weapon to Judy.

"Fine. But at least have someone use this thing," he said. "I want to contribute in any way I can."

Judy took it, but immediately realized it was too heavy for her to use efficiently in the field. She looked at Chief Bogo. "Uh, chief, do you mind…?"

Chief Bogo took it from her paws and rolled it around in his hooves, testing it. He brought it into the firing position, held it there for a second, then brought it back down. "This'll work," he said. "Appreciate it, Mr. Grey."

"And we were _just_ at your parents' house, too," Nick sighed. "No rest for law enforcement, apparently."

"Wait." A thought occurred to Judy. "What do we do with the two hitmen in the closet?"

"You and Wilde get to your house, Hopps," Chief Bogo commanded. "I'll take those two down to the station and come back with reinforcements."

"Actually, Chief…" Nick said. "I can call in backup from my car."

Bogo looked at him. "I don't want to know, do I?"

Nick shook his head. "Probably not."

The chief nodded, then exited the room with a "We've got work to do, Officers!"

Nick and Judy followed suit. Judy was extremely nervous, and it was all she could do to keep her leg from thumping against the ground. She had to warn her parents, but she left her phone at home. Why couldn't she have brought it with her? Nick started to run as he opened Gideon's front door, and Judy, who had been right on his heels, found him practically throwing himself into the driver's seat just as she was exiting Gideon's house. But wait, thought Judy. That was impossible. How could he have been able to cover such a distance in such a small amount of time? She hurried into the passenger's seat and closed the door.

"All right, Carrots, get on the horn and send it out. At this point, we'd do more harm than good by not communicating with the station. Whatever criminals are listening in, they're just gonna find out that the cops are having a party at the Hopps' house. The faster we get reinforcements, the better."

Judy felt for the radio on the scanner. "What's up with your super speed?" she asked him, finding the radio on top of the scanner.

Nick looked at her in an odd way as he slammed on the gas, kicking up a large dust cloud behind them. "What are you talking about?"

"You somehow got from Gideon's front door to the car in about two seconds." She brought the radio out into view.

"Must be the Animal in me," Nick said. "Pun intended."

Judy rolled her eyes before speaking into the radio. "Attention all available units, we have a credible threat against hundreds of civilians. Officers Hopps and Wilde requesting backup at Bunnyburrow."

" _Ten-four, Officer Hopps."_

"Clawhauser!" Judy cried out; she had forgotten that he was off the mission. "It's good to hear your voice! Even if it _does_ sound a bit depressed..."

" _All the fun got taken out of work."_ A sigh came from the cheetah's end of the conversation. _"Ever since Chief Bogo left, things have been getting worse and worse. They finally found a replacement more condescending than Bogo himself. So, guys, what's your ten-twenty?"_

"The residence of Bonnie and Stu Hopps," Nick jumped in. "The mafia's put out a hit on the entire Hopps family."

Judy remembered something. "Nick, can I borrow your phone so I can warn my parents?"

" _Guys."_ Clawhauser had gone from depressed to very excited in an instant. _"What's happened?"_

"Not now, Ben," Nick said, fishing around in his pockets and trying to find his phone. "It's a delicate situation, and it's gonna end in a hailstorm of bullets no matter how we roll the dice."

" _Guys, I have to know what the problem is before -"_

"Ben, if we make it out of here alive, I _promise_ you I'll tell you everything you want to know about what's going on, but right now, we need to get as many officers as we can to Judy's parents' house. That means SWAT's included, too; get as many SWAT teams as you can and send all officers that aren't preoccupied." Nick spoke every word with emphasis. "If we don't have enough firepower to push them back, hundreds of innocent animals will die. And I don't even want to think about the casualties the force might sustain." He pulled his phone out and gave it to Judy. "Here you go, Carrots."

" _All right, Nick, I'll let them know."_ Clawhauser fell silent for a second, presumably switching to the universal channel, then said, _"This is the ZPD. We have mafia members converging on the residence of Bonnie and Stu Hopps in Bunnyburrow. All available units, please respond."_

In an instant, it seemed as if all of the ZPD was responding; overlapping came from the scanner. _"Roger that"_ s and _"Ten-four"_ s and _"Affirmative"_ s bombarded the cabin. Judy turned to Nick's phone and swiped a padded finger across it, but, instead of his home page, was greeted with the lock screen. The peculiar thing about it was that the code required to access the phone was more than four digits.

"Nick, password?" she asked, holding the phone up so he could see it.

"762464663." The response was much too quick for her to understand him.

"Again, maybe this time maybe a bit slower than the speed of light?"

Nick rolled his eyes. "Seven, six, two, four, six…"

Judy punched in the numbers and muttered to herself. "Seven, six, two, four, six…"

"...four, six, six, three," Nick finished.

"...four, six, six, three." Judy now had access to his phone. But something tugged at her. "Why such a complex password?"

"It...holds a certain hereditary pride to me," Nick said shortly. "The numbers correspond with letters that spell out the nickname of one of my forebears, my ancestors. Pretty well-known guy, back in the day."

"Who was it?"

Nick's face turned bitter and resentful. "I don't want to talk about it," he sighed, eyes still on the road back to the Hopps residence. "Call your parents."

Judy typed in her parents' phone number and hit the green button. The line rang, and the suspense built up in Judy's insides. Fear was slamming into her like a ten-foot ocean wave.

" _Hello? Who is this?"_ Her father's voice was music to her ears.

"Dad! It's Judy!" She couldn't keep the urgency and paranoia from escaping with her voice. "Listen to me, you guys need to -"

" _Hold on, there, honey bunny,"_ her dad chuckled. _"What's the matter?"_

"Dad, the entire family's in danger. The mafia's going to be there any minute now! You need to -"

" _What, the mafia? Why would they bother with us? We're just -"_

Judy's patience wore thin. " _Dad, will you just listen to me?!_ " she shouted. Silence came from the other end of the phone. "We went to Gideon's house to check out a lead that he had been working with the head of the mafia, Mr. Big. It turns out that he was, but he got a guilty conscience and ended up being targeted. They sent a hit squad, but they were subdued by the time we got there. Nick found a message on one of their burner phones that called for all mafia members to kill our entire family so the ZPD would know they meant business. You guys have to get to the fox shelter, _now_!"

" _Okay."_ Her dad's voice was shaky, and he sounded extremely nervous. _"Okay. I'll tell Bonnie and the older kits that we've got to move everyone down there. It's big enough for all of us to fit, all two hundred seventy-five of us."_

"Get everyone down there as soon as you can. And, Dad -" Judy sighed; it was hard for her to accept the fact that her whole family was in danger. " - stay hidden. Shoot something only if it comes through the door first. Some of the animals they've sent will have taken night howler serum. Please, Dad...be careful."

" _I will, honey bunny. I love you."_

Judy bit her lip to keep it from shaking. "I love you too," she replied in a watery tone. She pushed the red button before locking Nick's phone and handing it back to him. He ripped it from her grasp without warning, making her jump.

"Come on, Carrots," he said, shoving his mobile device back in his pocket. "Don't get all soft on me now; we need our game faces on for this."

Judy tried to steel her nerves as best she could. It would be difficult, she assumed, to focus on the mission at hand and not be concerned for her family, but she would try. When she did, she was surprised that it was a lot easier than she thought; all that she had to worry about was the number of rounds in her weapon and the number of bad guys still standing. It felt good, knowing exactly what to do in this situation and having a clear head. It was like giving a speech after rehearsing it over and over again in the mirror and, when it came time to do it for real, translating text to speech verbatim. Whatever evil was on its way to Judy's family, she knew it would be gone before high noon.

The car turned a perfect 180 and the tires screeched as Nick pulled in front of the Hopps residence. Judy, standard-issue police pistol at the ready, felt the calm before the storm. When Nick twisted his paw to turn the engine off, she opened the passenger door and looked out on the horizon. The flat terrain and lack of tall buildings made it easy to see the red and blue flashes of squad car sirens off in the distance; help was arriving, but how quickly would they get here? Judy was gripped by a sense of uncertainty. Backup would get here before Big's men did...right? She motioned to Nick.

"Let's check the storm cellar," she said. Then she remembered that she had called it a "fox shelter" when she was talking with her dad. Had Nick heard? Granted, he was hyper observant, but maybe he had been caught up in the thrill of the moment. She decided to keep quiet about it as they rounded the house. Judy knocked on the double doors. "Dad? Mom?" she called to the closed doors. "Is everyone in there?"

The doors opened and her mother's head popped out.

"Hi, Judy!" she said cheerfully. "How's everything going?"

Judy was taken aback by her mother's rather unusual calmness about the whole thing. "Uhh...fine," she replied. She looked past her mother's large bunny ears to see a gaggle of her siblings rambunctiously hiding in the hollowed-out room.

"Wow," came Nick's voice, just above Judy's head; he must be peeking over her ears. "That's a lot of bunnies."

"We're explosive breeders, Nick," Judy explained. "Ever heard the phrase, 'fu-'"

"Yeah, yeah," Nick replied loudly. "'F like rabbits', I got it. Were you actually going to say that word?" He clicked his tongue mock-scoldingly and assumed a snobby, nanny-esque British accent. "We mustn't sully the children's brains with naughty words, Judith."

She elbowed him with the right amount of force to let him know that she knew he was joking, but that she wanted him to cut it out.

"Okay, okay, I'll drop it," he agreed.

"Mom, things are going to get a bit crazy out here," Judy explained to her mother. "But no matter what happens, you _have_ to stay down here. It's for your own safety. Whatever you do, _don't_ leave the cellar. Let Dad know, too."

"Well, what if they come in here?"

Judy was expecting her to ask the question, and was well-prepared to answer it.

"If any of the animals we're fighting somehow magically makes it past the police officers and SWAT teams we have en route, then Dad'll get to use that new automatic assault rifle I bought him for Christmas."

Her mother looked disapproving. "That was you?" she asked in a miffed tone.

"Yeah, Mom. I put the tag on it. The one that said, 'To Dad, from Judy.'"

"He said it was from Gideon."

Judy rolled her eyes; that fox loved guns, there was no way he could have felt safe without them. "Of course he did, Mom."

"Mommy?" One of Judy's smaller siblings, not quite a preteen but older than Jonathan, tugged at his mother's blue jeans. He was holding something in his paw. Something black.

"What is it, Andy?" Judy was surprised her mother could keep track of them all; she made a mental note to memorize the names of all of the children she might have in the future...and if she was honest with herself, she wanted Nick to be the father.

Andy held his paw out to show his mom what he had found. Judy stared in shock, and nervousness shot through her body. It was Mr. Big, but he wasn't moving.

"I founded a dead mouse," he said.

Nick held out his paw. "Do you mind, Andy?" he asked.

Andy transferred the unmoving rodent to Nick's possession, who looked at his paw pads in a mixture of surprise, dread, and happiness.

"Uh...that's not a mouse," he said, still looking at Big. "We'll take care of him."

"Be safe out there, you two," Judy's mom said. "When you two are at the church together, I want to be hearing wedding bells, not funeral bells!"

"Mom, stop it!" Judy said, smiling bashfully.

"Oh, come on, hon," her mom said as she started pulling the doors closed. "You two have the same connection with each other that I have with Stu. And if that's not love, I don't know what is!" The doors closed, sealing in the rest of the Hopps family, but not before her mother yelled out, "And I expect grandkids!"

Judy chuckled. "Oh, Mom." She turned to Nick. "She's always-"

And then she stopped. Nick was, for no apparent reason, sniffing Mr. Big. He carried on for a few seconds, then looked at her and said, "Dead. Trampled. And why are you looking at me like that?" For Judy was staring at him in disgust.

"You're smelling a dead body, Nick," she said, repulsed. "I think that merits a look of revulsion."  
Nick shrugged his shoulders quickly. "I'm a fox. I've got to make sure my target's not playing dead. Plus, my nose is one of my primary sources of information." He turned back to Big. "Anyway, he's been gone since last night. Not sure why he passed, though. Shame, too. He actually turned out to be a big help to us in the Otterton case."

Judy's mind was racing through the facts as fast as Nick's car had raced through the deserted road. Big had been dead since last night. Two thugs had been sent to take care of Gideon this morning, and someone called "The Boss" had sent out a hit on her family. But it couldn't have been Big, because he had been dead. "So who told the mafia to go after my family?" she asked aloud, finishing her thoughts.

"Well Carrots, it was most likely our resident insane sheep, Dawn Bellwether," Nick said grimly. "Think about it. Big says he'll break Bellwether out of jail if she agrees to work for them. She agrees, but then gives them the slip. Then for some magical reason, Big somehow ends up dead and the mafia is now going after the family of the one cop that was able to bust Bellwether for the night howler conspiracy? Coincidence? I think _not_. And do you remember when I told you that Big wasn't one to go after the police directly unless they made the first move? He thinks that the crazy weasel that I was disguised as, the one you hate, is a criminal that the cops haven't been 'competent' enough to catch." He put air-quotes around "competent," which would have been easier if he hadn't been holding a dead crime boss in one paw. "So in his head, the cops hadn't kidnapped him."

"I _hope_ not, but you're probably right," Judy shuddered. "But wait. Whoever it was mentioned that ferret. How could Bellwether have known that we were using the ferret costume?" She shook her head and sighed. "I just don't want to have to have any more encounters with that sheep. I want to stay as far away from her as possible for the rest of my life. Maybe use the FURRIE to -" She stopped. A horrible thought had occurred. Where _was_ her FURRIE? She hadn't seen it since they had arrived at her parents' house. She had left it in Nick's car, right there on the seat, when Nick and her mother had first met. She remembered it clearly. But where was it?

"Nick, have you seen my FURRIE anywhere?" she asked him.

Nick looked at her, eyes wide with concern. "No. No, I haven't."

Dread hit Judy like a monsoon. If her FURRIE was gone, then who had it? And furthermore, what if someone she had recently talked to, someone she trusted, wasn't who they said they were? What if someone down in the cellar was just waiting for the right moment to strike? What if it was Bellwether? But no...none of her family members were larger than a wolf or a polar bear, and the chief's model was the only one, between the three FURRIEs she had seen, that could make an animal look like another animal that was smaller than his or herself. She calmed her emotions; her family would be fine. Wait...Nick. He didn't seem like the type to make dirty jokes and drink energy beverages.

"Say, Nick…" she said, thinking of a way to test whether or not it was really him. "When did we first meet?"

He narrowed his eyes and looked at her as if she had said something suspicious; nevertheless, he recounted it perfectly: "Finnick and I were at Jumbeaux's Cafe trying to buy a red jumbo pop for a hustle, the elephant at the counter refused to serve us, you got him to serve us, I didn't have my wallet, you paid him with a twenty and told him to keep the change. We talked outside, and I told you it was nice to meet an animal who wasn't so patronizing. I told Finnick to give you a goodbye toot-toot. That's when you pulled an invisible train whistle and said, 'Toot-toot!.' After that, we parted ways until you caught up to me again and we had a word war that I'm pretty sure I won. Why?"

Judy breathed a sigh of relief. "I just thought you might be Bellwether in disguise."

Nick chuckled in a way that made the very idea seem ridiculous. "Puh- _lease_. If that lamb chop got the drop on me, you'd never let me hear the end of it. Heck, _I'd_ never let me hear the end of it. I mean, I've heard of a wolf in sheep's clothing, but a sheep in fox's clothing? That's pretty far-fetched. Nope. I'm me.

"Now come on. We've got a mafia to shut down."


	8. The Tracks of Nick's Tears

All the flashes of black, white, blue, red, and gold around Judy's old home brought with them a sense of realism that attacked her mercilessly: she grew up here. She was born here, she was raised here, and she was loved here. She had laughed, cried, struggled, thrived, learned, played hooky, and made friends, all in this one building. From these seemingly unremarkable lands, a bunny had fulfilled her childhood dreams and saved a civilization from utter destruction. True harmony between predator and prey was now reality, and the creatures of Zootopia had only a rabbit and a fox to thank, two ancient foes who were able to put aside their differences and work for a greater goal. And if a rabbit and a fox could work together, then why not a lion and zebra? Or a wolf and a deer? And now, as Judy stood on her front porch, she saw what was really happening: she was making the biggest difference that had ever been made in Zootopia. She was the reason predators were no longer discriminated against...well, for the most part; her father was the exception that proved the rule. She had shown strength when everyone thought she would fail, and when she succeeded, she made sure that her success was known. The fear of what would happen in the next hour melted away; the part of her that screamed "Run!" fell silent. This was her territory, and whoever wanted to hurt her family would have to make it past her first. As she watched the SWAT teams setting up defenses and emergency aid tents, she realized that this was the last place the mafia could have wanted to attack. The cops were ready, and whoever fired a shot at the blockades would be cut down within seconds. But as she thought about it, she was surprised that not a single threat had presented itself. After all, hadn't the boss, whoever he or she was, called their forces into action before Judy was able to contact the station? Shouldn't the mafia have beaten the police to the scene?

"Makes you wonder, huh, Carrots?"

Nick woke her from her thoughts. She turned to him and said, "What do you mean?"

"Well," he started, standing next to her, "the mafia's known for being merciless, but this seems way out of character. Like I said, Big isn't big on attacking if he hasn't first been attacked. He's a big believer in massive retaliation. Even if Big was alive, this whole incident makes Bellwether much more likely to have her hooves controlling the puppet strings."

"About that." She had to ask somebody, and a hyper observant fox on a sugar rush was most likely her best bet at getting accurate information. "How did we get here before the mafia did? I mean, they were told to come here before we even got to Gideon's house."

Nick inhaled deeply before starting to ramble. "Well, they're pretty spread out, right? So they'd have to regroup. Now luckily, they couldn't regroup here, because this place is now under the control of their enemy, which means that they wouldn't want to recover behind enemy lines. So they were probably smart enough to join forces somewhere else before they even got on the road to your parents' home. In the meantime, the cops are allies of the Hopps family, so they can regroup on the battlefield and prepare defenses long before the mafia even gets an organized attack coordinated. Speaking of defenses-" Nick pointed to the dirt road on either side of the police blockades, blockades filled with armored personnel carriers, cops, and flashing lights. Judy followed his paw to see groups of three animals in bomb suits lowering things into the ground.

"These guys are SWAT bomb techs," Nick explained. "They're the ones that get to make sure that Big's cars trip the landmines they're installing right now. Sure, the road'll be all torn up, but we'll have the city pave over it. The road's due for an upgrade anyway."

Judy had vastly underestimated the situation; if they needed land mines to hold their ground, then the mafia was a lot bigger than she expected.

"Wilde! Hopps!" The chief's deep tones hit her ears like a ton of bricks.

"Chief," Nick replied, acknowledging the buffalo. "What do you need us to do?"

"Just hold the line for now," the chief said, folding his arms and looking down at them. "We have a lot of firepower, but we need all the personnel we can get to fight off the bad guys."

"Ten-four, sir," Judy said. "And, Chief?"

"Yes, Hopps?"

Judy hesitated to ask the question she wanted answered; Nick was, after all, right next to her. "Uh...Who's stationed at the entrance to the house's fox shelter?"

"Why do you keep calling it a fox shelter?" Nick asked suspiciously.

"Later, Wilde," the chief said, holding up a hand to silence him. "Hopps, I understand your concerns, but like I said, all of the animals here are going to be holding back the enemy. Making sure your family is safe is our top priority, but we won't need to post guards at your family's shelter."

Judy started to open her mouth to make protests, but she felt Nick grab her shoulder gently. "He's right, Carrots. If we put animals on guard duty, it'd be too easy for the mafia to figure out where your family is. And trust me, the last thing you want is for the mafia to know where your loved ones are."

Judy hung her head silently; her ears drooped. "Okay," she muttered.

"Oh, hey, Chief," Nick said. "I have that money that Invertebrate Affairs got us." He ran off to his car. Judy was glad he remembered; in all of the confusion, she had forgotten about it. In fact, she wondered how even writers were able to keep everything straight in her head, filling in the smallest of plot holes, tying off each loose end, and making the story interesting, utilizing multiple synonyms for the same actions. Nick came back with the briefcase, and as he handed it to the chief, Judy smelled something fishy. What was going on?

The chief opened the case and looked in amazement. "Wilde, it's all here."

Nick inspected his claws. "It wasn't the first time I've played with house money. Just made up for all of the cash we spread throughout the staff and then left. You gave ten thousand, you get ten thousand."

The chief closed the case. "Who cares," he muttered.

And there it was. Judy knew it. He had kept the two thousand for himself. What a fox thing to do. Great. Now she was thinking like her father.

"Now, back to the matter at hand. We appreciate the fact that you're only wanting to protect your family, Hopps," the chief made a rather paltry attempt to reassure her, "but Wilde is absolutely correct. The mafia shouldn't ever be able to know where your family is. Now, grab a gun from one of the SWAT APCs and get in position. Wilde, you too."

"Well, what about you, Chief?"

"Carrots, don't you remember?"

Then Judy understood. "That's right. You're using Gideon's rifle."

The chief nodded. "Of course, I only have one magazine to use, so I'll have to be both accurate and efficient."

"Kind of like the exact opposite of a high school student taking a whiz during fourth period," Nick supplied a witty comment.

Judy suppressed a chuckle. That was the chief, all right: blatantly obvious with a hard, tough exterior and a soft, nougaty center. And that was Nick: just kind of...impulsive. Possibly insane. She hopped off the steps to her porch and went on her way to the nearest of the two SWAT cars, which had just pulled up. The brakes squealed for only a moment as the vehicle came to a full stop, and as soon as it was stationary, the back doors opened and animal after heavily-armored animal jumped to the ground in a single-file line, where they spread out amongst the sandbags and other SWAT members, automatic rifles at the ready.

"Dang," Nick commented. "They don't mess around."

"Hey, you two!" A white-furred German shepherd in SWAT gear had noticed them and was beckoning with his paw for them to approach him. Judy did so, but with utmost hesitancy; Nick calmly strolled over.

"What are you civvies doing out here?" he asked in a rather hostile voice. His German accent wasn't as strong as it should have been, Judy observed, but it was definitely there, kept well-hidden under an impressively-executed American accent.

Judy realized that they didn't have their uniforms on. She opted for her badge and flipped it open for him to see. "Officers Judy Hopps and Nicholas Wilde," she said as Nick copied her badge-flipping movement.

" _Ach du lieber!_ You're one of the Hopps family?"

Judy nodded.

"Well, then." The dog extended a paw. "Sergeant Klaus von Dreizehn."

Nick shook his hand. "Pleasure to meet you, Mr. von Dreizehn."

"The pleasure is all mine," Klaus replied. "Now, Ms. Hopps, I am honored to help your family. Is there something you needed?"

"Weapons," Judy said. "Two rifles."

"Ah, some rifles." Klaus knit his thick eyebrows as if he were thinking deeply. "Well, we don't have spares in any of the cars - it's a way of keeping better track of our equipment - but I'm sure some of the weapons in your squad car would have an effective weapon or two."

"Unfortunately, Klaus," Nick explained, "we only have shotguns and handheld pistols in standard-issue police vehicles. And my car -" He jerked his thumb towards the vehicle. "- is far from police-standard. So unless we want to charge the entire criminal underworld of Zootopia, there's not much we can do."

"I see," Klaus nodded. "Well, then, I suggest you two get inside your family's home. You can provide cover fire if the mafia breaches our defenses. Those pistols will definitely work at that range, I can promise you. I've provided sniper fire with nothing but a nine millimeter before. Granted, it was in a very close-quarters engagement, nothing quite as wide open as a farm, but anything you can shoot at them will be effective to some extent."

But Judy didn't want to take a backseat. These were animals she _cared_ about. "But, Klaus, I want to help you guys out here."

"Officer Hopps, I understand your enthusiasm," Klaus responded patiently, earnestly. "Believe me, if I were in your shoes, I'd want to help too. But when it comes down to it, there are too many animals here for each of us to have an assault weapon. So the SWAT team member who's been trained to use the weapon will be much more preferable to the police officer who hasn't. And I mean no offense when I say that, Officer Hopps. I mean, tons of German shepherds have become bomb detectors and SWAT members, but there's only one bunny cop, and I salute you for that. But Officer, my job is to keep you and your family safe. So please...let me do my job."

Judy was taken aback by his unaggressive attitude; weren't SWAT teams supposed to be angry all the time? "Okay, Klaus, we'll go into the house," she agreed, albeit reluctantly. "Come on, Nick."

"See you later, Klaus," Nick said as Judy walked to her home.

"Hopefully not in the obituaries," the shepherd joked.

Judy walked through her parents' front door, and as soon as she heard the door close behind her, she turned to look at Nick, who said, "Jeez, how'd that guy ever get to be part of an assault force? He's way too lacking in the confrontational department."

Judy thought about it. "Guess you don't have to be mad to shoot someone," she concluded.

"Yeah, no kidding," Nick agreed. "So, your dad has a rifle with him in the 'fox shelter,' right?" He air-quoted "fox shelter."

"Yes…" Judy confirmed slowly, not quite sure where Nick was going with the conversation.

"Does he have any more weapons?"

Judy remembered an old cabinet that she was forbidden to look in until she was a high school junior. When her dad showed her what was in it, she had stared at all of the guns and fox defenses he had stocked up over the years. Was everything still there? She had to look. She remembered where it was: upstairs, first door on the left, to the right of the bed. With no warning given to Nick, she hopped her way up the stairs, skipping over the vast majority of them, and bounding into the bedroom. Nick's distant thudding footsteps could be heard as he called out, "Hey, Carrots, what's gotten into you?"

Judy threw open the door to the cabinet. Most of the guns were still lying dormant: rifles, shotguns, and the assortment of anti-fox equipment, including the fox deterrent and taser her father had put together in the care package he had given her before she had left for Zootopia.

"Jeez, Judy, why the rush?"

Judy freezed; Nick was right behind her. How did he sneak up on her like that? She looked back at him, uncertain and afraid of his possible reaction to the contents of the cabinet. Nick, much to her surprise, merely sighed, a bit resentfully.

"He still doesn't trust us, does he?" he asked Judy, who knew the answer was supposed to be rhetorical; nonetheless, she couldn't stop herself from coming up with an excuse.

"N-no, that's not it at all, Nick," she stammered. "Uh...he just...wants to prepare for every situation! Yeah, that's it!"

Nick looked at her sadly. "Judy...stop. Please. It's not like I'm a kit anymore. I realize that foxes are mistrusted because of our predator status, and I know that for most of my life I haven't been the best at proving that we can _be_ trusted. But I'm turning a new leaf. I'm getting everything back on track." He walked sullenly to the window on the other side of the bed and rested his paws on the sill. As he stared at the sill, he chuckled quietly, bitterly, then turned back to Judy. His ears weren't poking up, but they weren't laid back. They made him look a bit...dejected, and Judy couldn't help but feel deeply for him.

"You know…" he started. "...when I was a kid, I bought that 'anyone can be anything' stuff. And then, when the Scouts incident happened…" A silent tear trailed down his face. "That was when I realized that life was never going to be on my side. The prey would always have the advantage. Employers would always hire a rhinoceros over a jackal, a cow over a lion…" He closed his eyes. "...and as a fox, what was I going to do?" His voice broke. "Do you know how many times I applied for a job that was denied me _only_ because I was a predator? They never had any other reason, just 'No, we can't trust you, you might bite one of the customers.'" The tears were no longer silent. "Do you know how hard that hits your soul?"

Judy's sympathy ensnared her senses, and she ran to Nick and embraced him in an attempt to calm him down, to commiserate him. He held her in his arms for a few moments, then let her free.

"Thanks, Judy," he said shakily. "I needed that." He wobbled over to the bed and sat down on it, sighing deeply. "When the demons attack you, they never relent," he said bitterly.

Judy knew he had something he needed to get off his chest; he had acted like this before. She sat down next to him. "Well, why don't you tell me what's going on right now, Nick?"

Nick inhaled through his mouth and looked up at the ceiling before starting.

"I told you I was expelled my junior year of college, right?"

"Yeah…" Judy said slowly.

"Well, I'm not sure if you caught this little slip up, but I told you I _left_ college of my own free will during the conversation about crime being as hard to quit as drugs." He sighed again, this time shaky; something drastic was about to happen.

"Everything was going great as a freshman and sophomore: loved the classes, the professors, the projects, the social life…

"Then junior year hit, and it was Ranger Scouts all over again."

* * *

 _The Dorm_

 _11:27 P.M._

 _Friday, November 19, 2007_

 _"Hey, yo, Wilde."_

 _I look up from my book,_ Advanced Java Techniques for College _. Finnick's in the doorway. I sigh._

 _"Look, Finnick," I say, throwing in an extra bit of weariness to convey my drowsy state of being, "it's been a long day and a long night. Let me just read my book, man."_

 _Finnick shrugs. "Come on, Nick. You can bury your snout in that nerd junk later. I've got a couple girls with me that just so happen to need, uh...a bit of attention tonight." He gives me a sly smile and a wink, which doesn't really work with his sunglasses on._

 _I try to scold him using only my gaze. "Are they from the club?"_

 _He dodges my eyes. At least, I think he does; the glasses make it hard to figure out what's going on behind them. "Maybe."_

 _I shake my head in frustration and sleepiness. "For the last time, Finnick, I don't want to have sex with an animal I don't feel a deep passion for. If I'm gonna give a girl access to anything more than my phone number, I'll do so when I've already married them."_

 _"Fine with me," Finnick throws his hands up defensively. "Just remember this conversation when you want to get it on and no one's there for you to bang." He turns to leave, then looks back at me. "Oh, almost forgot." He throws a can of something at me. I catch it with both paws, surprised I'm still coordinated enough not to drop anything. It's an Animal._

 _"Green and black," Finnick says. "Your favorite. I was gonna keep it, but I knew you were gonna be up all night with your book and pocket protector, so…" He shrugs. "You need it more than I do."_

 _"Thanks," I say._

 _Finnick closes the door without a word. I instantly stash the can in my desk drawer. "Maybe later," I mutter to him, even though he can't hear me. "I was actually just about to turn in." I bend the corner of the page just a little: large enough to save my place, but small enough to not make a huge difference in the integrity of the book. I stand up and immediately begin to struggle to keep my eyes open. I'm much more tired than I thought I was. I tell myself it's all for a good cause; it's all to see my name, 'Nicholas Piberius Wilde', on that diploma next year. It'll all pay off a year and a half from now…_

 _A knock on the door keeps me from my warm, comfy bed. It's probably my roommate, whose name I can never remember. Jordan Baxter or something like that. Anyway, it's probably him. We both hit it off pretty well, because two foxes get along just nicely in this day and age; two thousand years ago, we'd be tearing at each other's throats for hunting privileges in different areas of the wild. He was an animation major, the kind of guy who likes to make animals move and talk for huge cinematic productions. He told me about the whole concept, and I couldn't help but take a liking to it. Unfortunately, he wasn't quite as interested in raw computer code, like I was. He tells me he doesn't have the mental capacity to remember the differences between method overriding and method overloading, insertion sort and selection sort, and other stuff like that. And after seeing his code...I believe him._

 _I twist the knob on the door and begin to open it, talking as I do so._

 _"Welcome back, Jordan. Were you at the library or some-?"_

 _The feeling of a muzzle binding by mouth shut, a bag over my head, hooves and paws alike grabbing me by the upper arm, and the click of handcuffs holding my paws behind my back and out they force me into the once familiar territory of the hallway, a place in which I now fear for my life, a place that might see the end of my days…_

Nick stopped, drawing another long, shaky breath.

Judy was afraid to push it. "Nick…"

He held up a paw, and she fell silent. "I can keep going," he said.

"Now where was I? Right. The hallway…"

 _I hear the main door open and the cold, biting night air hits my body like a hard stomp on my tail. The wet grass claws at my feet, soaking my fur. I hear the footsteps of my attackers. There are at least three of them, maybe four. And they jeer at me._

 _"Guess we outfoxed you this time, huh, Wilde?" one voice mocks me._

 _"Who's the prey now, fox boy?" a second hisses in my ear._

 _I try to ask them why they're doing this, but the muzzle doesn't let me. I am a silent victim, a victim of nothing more than unjustified hatred...and I can do nothing to protect myself._

 _We stop. I don't know where we are. I'm scared. I want it to be over. Please. Please, just let me go._

 _A hoof forces itself into my stomach. I double over in pain, coughing in agony. I take in a ragged breath of air._

 _The bag is lifted from my head. Four figures, hiding their faces in the shadows of the night. I look at each of them in turn. Who are they? Why are they doing this to me?_

 _"Are you afraid, little foxy?" one of them taunts._

 _"We want to see the fear in your eyes?"_

 _I open my mouth to speak, but nothing comes out except a weak "Please."_

 _They all laugh maliciously._

 _A figure moves. My gut hurts. I've been kicked in the stomach. I roll over. More hard coughing. The figure laughs._

 _"Does it hurt?" he asks in a baby voice. "Does it hurt?"_

 _A paw digging into the fur on my chest. A pull to the right. A force on my cheek. The fist of one of my assailants connects with my head, jerking it to the other side. Again. Again. Again._

 _"You're not tough anymore, are you now, fox?"_

 _The tears come. They're relentless. And the sobs...the sobs betray me. When I need them least, they find their way to my throat. I'm crying. I don't want to. I want to go back to the dorm. I want to escape._

 _Please. Please, just let me go._

* * *

Nick's eyes were dry; Judy couldn't stem the flow of compassionate tears leaking from her purple eyes.

"Oh, Nick…" she said softly, putting her paw on his.

"I'm not done," he told her patiently.

* * *

 _They can hear me, hear my whimpering, my pain. It's what they want. Their mission is complete. And yet...they don't stop. A fist, a sharpened kick, a paw scraping itself across my chained muzzle. I dare to close my eyes. I sacrifice my body to soothe my spirit. And then...then a new voice. An angry voice. It swears at my attackers. It screams at them._

" _Hey! Stop! You four! Get away from him NOW!"_

 _The blows stop landing. The venomous insults lose their sting. One of the voices speaks out._

" _Let's scamper, boys."_

 _Four pairs of legs running away. Four rage-fueled young adults escaping a brutal crime scene. My tears don't stop. But these tears...were they tears of sadness or relief? Tears of pain...or tears of joy, of jubilance? I don't care. It's over._

 _A pair of gentle paws on the back of my head. A soft voice._

" _Hey, kid," it addresses me. The paws start undoing my muzzle. "Hey. It's over. I'm here to help you."_

 _The muzzle comes off, and my sobbing is now much more audible. The voice's owner moves in front of me. Arms wrap themselves around me in a hug of comfort, a gesture to alleviate the pain. A gesture rendered ineffective as I sob into the shoulder of my savior._

" _Jeez, kid, you're lucky I had to work overtime tonight."_

 _I look around. We're surrounded by buildings. We're in the courtyard. Lights turn on. Animals are noticing the situation. Windows. WIndows sliding open. Animals calling to each other, looking at us._

 _"Don't pay them any attention, kid," said the lifesaving figure. "You're all right." A screen. A phone. He holds the phone to his ear._

 _"Yeah, I've got a young adult male fox in need of medical assistance at the college in the Downtown District. He's been beaten pretty badly." The phone goes away. It retreats to his pocket. Distant footsteps. Gasps of shock and horror. Lights hitting me, throwing the figure into view. A jackrabbit. Suit-clad. Concerned. The dean._

 _"I'm the dean here, fox," he say. "What's your name?"_

 _I stifle my tears, only able to do so for a moment. "N-Nick Wilde."  
"Okay, Nick, listen to me," he starts. Then voices. All the voices. And the crowd. Surrounding me. Suffocating me._

 _"Oh, my -"_

 _"Is that a FOX?"_

 _"What happened to him?"_

 _"Looks beat up something awful."_

 _"He's handcuffed!"_

 _"Hey, there's a muzzle over here!"_

 _The dean yells. "Guys, please! Give him some space! He's scared for his life!"_

 _The onlookers back up, letting me breathe freely. The dean turns back to me. "Nick, can you turn over and let me see if I can't get those cuffs off ya?"_

 _I nod. "I can try." I turn over slowly. The pain is still there. My body aches, aches with pain and sorrow. But I make it. The cold, wet grass feels good against my bleeding muzzle. I feel my paws moving around. I hear the lock system rattling._

 _"Almost...got it," the dean's voice comes._

 _The cuffs click, releasing my paws. Relief. My wrists hurt. They hurt as if someone had broken them. The dean turns me over._

 _"Okay, listen, Nick," the dean tells me. "The medics will be here in less than ten minutes. You're going to be fine, but we need you to stay here and try and move as little as possible. Can you do that?"_

 _"Yeah," I groan, breathing heavily. "No problem."_

" _Good." The dean looks up. "Everybody back to your dorms! NOW!"_

 _The shuffling of feet, the hissing whispers, it all goes away. The fear is now stronger than ever, What did I ever do? I don't deserve this. No animal does. Who wanted me to draw my last breath before my life had even started?_

 _Sirens in the distance. My fur soaks up the blood leaking from my body. Tears roll down my face. Why me?_

 _Let me go._

* * *

Nick's silent tears came back, dripping from his chin. But when he spoke, his voice was even, calm. Not the slightest waver could be found in his tone, far from sounding like a crying fox.

"Ever since then, I was paranoid that the one time I let my guard down, someone was going to kill me." He looked at Judy. Judy knew that years of pent-up emotion were now coming forth from his lips, and Judy couldn't help but feel special. After all, she could tell that she was the only one he had ever bothered to talk to about this. If he didn't trust her, how could he tell her his darkest secrets?

"Do you remember when I told you I swam in high school?" Nick continued.

Judy nodded.

"I did it because I wanted to learn how to hold my breath for a long time underwater. If anyone tried to drown me, I wanted to be prepared. Then I enrolled in a self-defense class. And my freerunning…" He hung his head. "That was me preparing to run from any threat I might have encountered.

"Do you know how miserable it is to be scared all the time, Carrots? You think I'm gonna go savage and rip you apart. Me? I'm afraid someone's going to sneak up behind me with a cloth soaked in chloroform and torture me until I die."

He wiped the tears off of his face.

"After I was released from the hospital, I met with the dean, the one that saved my life…

"...That's when I left."

* * *

 _The Dean's Office_

 _9:53 P.M._

 _Wednesday, November 24, 2007_

 _I sit down in the chair across from the dean. He sits at his desk with a half-somber, half-relieved look on his face._

 _"It's good to see you back on your feet, Nick," he says as I carefully lower myself into a sitting position._

 _"Thanks, Dean," I reply. "It's not as bad as it looks."_

 _He gives an amused smile. "You've got a black eye and a brace around your lower torso."_

 _I shrug. "I've had worse injuries. Actually - " I chuckle. It's been a while since something of this magnitude has happened to me. Wait. Now I remember. "I, uh...I once got too close to my mom's car when she was backing out and I ended up having my tail run over by one of the wheels."_

 _He winces. "Ouch. That had to hurt."_

 _I shrug. "Eh. The pain went away after a couple of days."_

 _He sighs and pulls his chair closer to his desk. "So what brings you here? When I got your email asking to see me, I was caught a bit off-guard."_

 _I chuckle. "Well, I mean, come on, sir. You were the first one to help me when the attack happened. I don't think it's too hasty to assume that you're a friendly guy."_

 _He makes a face. "Fair enough. What is it you need?"_

 _I take a deep breath. You're not crying, Wilde, I tell myself. No tears. You're strong._

 _"Well, sir, I…" I swallow. "I...uh, I've been thinking about this for a while now, and I...think I'm going to drop out."_

 _He sits up at attention, his eyes widening slightly. "Nick, please tell me this is a prank."_

 _I shake my head and look at my jeans, ashamed. "No, sir. I'm afraid it's not."_

 _He is silent. I keep my head glued to the legs of my jeans. Finally, he speaks._

 _"Nick…" he sighs. "...if you stop your education here, you'll be much worse off. I mean, think of everything you've done to get here. You've worked through twelve long, hard years of the school system, and one incident is enough to ruin your entire future?"_

 _His words ignite a spark of anger in me._

 _"Has it ever happened to you?" I say, quietly but forcefully._

 _I slowly look up and glare at him. He seems uncertain. His nose is twitching. He's afraid. I can smell his fear._

 _"I-I'm sorry?"_

 _I don't know what's gotten into me. Without warning, I leap up onto my feet. My back sends a wave of excruciating pain that should be forcing me to sit down, but I barely care about it, barely notice it. This stupid rabbit behind his stupid desk with his stupid diploma. One incident? I almost lost my life._

 _"You've never been bound up and attacked, have you?" I feel the anger rising in my throat, in my voice._

 _The dean is now looking much more frightened than uncertain. "N-no, I haven't, Nick. Are you all right?"_

 _"Do I look all right to you?" I spit the question at him with venom. I hate myself for going off at him, but right now...right now I hate him more. I can't stop myself. "You have no idea what it's like! You don't know discrimination! You're prey! You always fit in easily! Me? I was ridiculed, resented because of what I looked like! YOUR KIND COULD NEVER GET PAST THE OUTSIDE, COULD THEY?!" I'm yelling at the top of my lungs now, and it feels good. It feels really good. My primal instinct adores me, praising me for making the rabbit scared. Keep going, it says. Get him to fear you. "I WAS JUST ANOTHER ANIMAL THAT COULD TURN ON YOU AT ANY MINUTE! YOU KNOW WHY NONE OF THE KIDS I KNEW IN MY CHILDHOOD EVER BECAME FRIENDS WITH ME? HUH? BECAUSE THEY WERE TOO SHALLOW TO LOOK ON THE INSIDE!" I stop, breathing hard. Rage and dejection have spoken for me. But I'm not done. "Those animals that beat me up last week? They let me know exactly - exactly - how ninety percent of Zootopia feels about me. And everyone else like me." I meet his eyes with a calm, judging stare. "You view me as a monster, capable of harming any innocent animal by opening my mouth and tearing them apart. Only now do I realize how much of a hypocrite you are."_

 _I'm panting heavily now. Why do I think being angry feels so good? Shouldn't I want to stay away from it? I unclench my paws. Pain. I look down at them. My paw pads have been punctured by my claws. Blood trickles from the wounds in my middle pads. The dean reaches for something. A swish of white. Tissues._

 _"Here," he says, as if nothing has happened. "That looks painful."_

 _Silent, I take them and apply pressure to the wounds. My pads really do hurt. I sit back down._

 _"What's wrong with you?" I ask him. "I just yelled at you and insulted you to your face. Why aren't you angry?"_

 _The dean gets up and folds his hands behind his back as he looks out of the window to his office. His tail twitches and he begins to pace._

 _"You know, Nick," he starts. "You're right. Most prey can't trust predators just because of how they look. They always tell themselves 'Oh, they look dangerous.' That's only because the instincts in the back of our minds view them as dangerous. So the prey, knowing that the predators think everything's peachy, decides to attack before they are themselves attacked. But they fail to see that in keeping themselves safe from the predators by attacking, they have become predators, perhaps not of flesh, but of minds, of emotions. They call out the predators as the monsters, but the predators are far more innocent than the prey."_

 _He stops and looks at me._

 _"You're not the only one who had trouble as a child, Nick," he says. "When I was a kit, I grew up with just a mom. It was me and her and no one else. Later, I learned my dad had 'broken up' with my mom long before I was born." He uses air quotes around the words "broken up". "He was a jackrabbit, but she was a wolf. My father had six kids with three different animals, different predators. But the way he had them was...highly illegal."_

 _And I realize what he means. "You mean, he ra-"_

 _The dean holds up his hand, and I fall silent. "Yes, Nick. He mated with them against their will and left them to deal with the consequences." He leans over his desk and looks deeply into my eyes with compassion, with sympathy. "So I know how it feels to be in your shoes. To have people look down on you for something that's out of your control. To ridicule you for nothing but fate. Believe me, Nicholas - I understand. You're not the only one who's seen the corruption of prey."_

 _I'm nothing if not shocked. I scream at him, and he merely turns the other cheek? I look down at my knees again, ashamed of my actions. I feel my ears drooping. "I'm sorry," I muttered._

 _I feel his hand on my shoulder. "Don't be," he says. "Sometimes it just feels good to let it all out, doesn't it?"_

 _I nod silently._

 _He pats my shoulder a few times, then stands back up._

 _"Nick, I would strongly suggest that you continue your education, but if you feel like it's in your best interests to leave our campus, then by all means, don't let my opinion get in the way."_

 _I look into his eyes. For a guy in his mid-thirties, there lies an abundance of wisdom behind them. I get the feeling that this rabbit knows what he's talking about. But all the same...what if it happens again?_

 _I sigh. "Look, this is a really hard decision for me. But I've made up my mind. I'm leaving."_

 _He nods solemnly. "I understand. I had hoped you would decide to stay, but I can't force my will on you." He gets up. "Whenever you're ready, gather your things from your dormitory. I'll make sure the rest of the staff knows that you've chosen to leave. And, Nick-" He grabs my shoulder to get my attention._

 _"I really hope you continue your education. If not with us, then with another university. It's always a shame to see the talented ones go."_

 _I'm touched by his remark. I blink tears away from my eyes as I say, "Thank you, sir. For everything."_

 _"Do you need my help with anything, Nick? Anything at all?"_

 _I think about it. "Well, there's one question I've been meaning to ask for a while, but it's probably not something you're normally asked."_

" _Okay," he says. "Ask away."_

 _I hesitate. He looks prepared for something serious. I'm considering asking a filler in place of my real question. But I follow through._

" _There's a...significant other in my life. Problem is, she doesn't know it yet. So how do I go about telling her I love her?"_

 _He smiles, obviously amused. "You're right. I've gotta say, this is a first." The dean looks at me, thinking. "Considering that it's so hard to get girls away from their friends, I'd wait until she's by herself, then go over, make introductions, and…" He shrugged. "...see where things go from there. That's how I met my wife. Uh, just outta curiosity, what's the girl's name?"_

 _I blush and smile sheepishly. I can't help it._

" _It's this vixen. Her name's May."_

* * *

Judy was shocked. "May? You mean…"

Nick nodded. "The very same that helped out the department." He chuckled bitterly and looked at her. "You know why I got nervous when we saw her while Ben was taking us to the FDA lab?"

"Yeah," Judy nodded, wondering what might have made him so timid. "Did you bomb the meet and greet?"

Nick shook his head, "It was worse. You know what I did?"

Judy was silent. Whatever was coming, it couldn't be good.

"I didn't even _try_ , Judy." His lip started quivering. 'She was sitting there in the campus Starfish, all by her lonesome, writing on her laptop and drinking coffee, and I can't work up the guts to walk over there and introduce myself. She looked at me and waved. She _waved_ at me, Carrots. And she still doesn't know that I was in love with her. I covered it up during the first time we met her, but now whenever I look at her, I feel like I can't live with myself." He looked down and shook his head again. "I doubt she even remembers that day at the Starfish."

"Are you going to tell her you love her?" Judy couldn't believe that she was asking him this. _She_ loved him. If she loved him, then why was she trying to make him love someone else? But Nick waved a paw.

"No," he said. "It's the past now. I only act weird around her because I have a strong sense of shame. I don't like failing myself, and May's a living reminder of my cowardice. A relationship with her would only make things worse."

Judy put her paw on his arm to comfort him.

"Who cares."


	9. She Counts Herself

Adrenalin shot through Judy's body; she jumped up in an arc that made it seem like she had been launched out of a cannon. She heard Nick yelp and whimper, and, still while in midair, she looked down at him to see his thick, bushy tail hiding his face. The second she felt her paws touch the ground, she bent her knees and landed on all fours. As she stood up, she found the chief standing in the doorway, his arms folded and his eyes indicated that he was clearly irritated.

"You should be a jumpscare in a horror film, Chief," Nick said through his tail fur.

"Zip it, Wilde," the chief ordered. "Why are you two hiding up here?"

Judy stepped in. "Chief, we were looking for weapons and ammo."

He raised an eyebrow. "And the SWAT teams didn't help you out because…"

"Because they have a one-to-one employee-weapon ratio," Nick said, lowering his tail. "Sergeant Klaus told us they have a grand total of -" He held up a paw formed into a circle. "- zero spares to give us. Which reminds me...why didn't we clear out the station's assault weapons?"

"Because, if you were attentive, Wilde," the chief said slowly, "we thought we had no time to waste. And in addition to that, most of the available station wagons were already on patrol with nothing to do. And what do you think that means?"

"It means they didn't get the chance to grab anything other than what they had in the car," Nick said, his ears and face dropping into a sarcastic "Oh, that's just great" position. "Which is why we were digging around for spare weapons. And guess what we found in Daddy's cupboard." He pointed to the cabinet. Judy followed the chief, glancing at the weapons that she herself had barely seen. Now that she thought about it, she was surprised that her father, who had used to be such a sensitive, harmless rabbit, would have such a vast arsenal right next to him while he was sleeping. Bogo turned back to them.

"Well, why haven't you grabbed a weapon?" he asked them. "All boots on the ground, you two." He turned and walked down the stairs, presumably going back to the action. Judy cast a glance at Nick, who seemed confused.

"And on that awkward note…" he stopped his sentence short and leaped over the bed, planting his feet on the other side. He browsed the guns in the cabinet. Finally, he grabbed two, one a dark gray and the other made of a wooden frame, and turned around, giving Judy an indecisive look.

" Scoped Smith and Wesson M and P 15-" He held up the gray gun. "- or scoped .22 Ruger semi-auto?" He lowered the gray gun and held up the wooden one. "They're both legal."

Judy didn't want to have to choose. She didn't like shooting things. "I don't want to use a gun, Nick."

He looked at the hunting rifle. "Carrots, sometimes you have to do things you don't want to do. As much as I hate it, I've got to pretend that nothing gets to me. And it gets very hard to keep up the facade." He loaded a round with the bolt mechanism, holding the other rifle between his body and his arm. "Honestly, I'm really hoping these are rubber rounds. Shooting living creatures…" He made a face of disgust. "Definitely not my thing. Always despised guns."

Judy was confused. "Why'd you join the force if you don't like guns? And how do you know exactly which gun is which?"

Nick sighed. "Well, for all my life I've believed in the 'know your enemy' mantra. So I trained myself to identify any kind of portable weapon I might encounter. And as far as actually using guns…" He stopped for a moment. "I always knew I was going to have to use one, and after our last escapade, I told myself, 'Piberius, if you're going to use a gun-" Judy stopped listening for a second. Piberius? That must have been his middle name. She gave Nick her ear again. "-then you're not going to use it to end an upstanding citizen.' And that's why I joined the force. Well, that, and-" He gave her an affectionate kiss in the cheek. "-Everything I could ever want is already on the force, as well."

Judy blushed, giggling out of bashfulness. "I feel the same way, Nick."

He laughed and looked into her eyes. It was a kind smile, a reassuring smile. She felt a rush of love urge her to throw herself towards him. Just as she was going to follow through with it, however, he raised his rifle and said, "Let's kick some bad guy butt." He threw the MP15 on the bed, which Judy picked up with some difficulty. It was heavy for a bunny. How could her dad have handled this beast if, God forbid, he ever had to use it?

All right, Hopps, she told herself. You've come this far. It's time to show the chief exactly why you were assigned to his precinct. This is the day you and your fluff butt show the rest of the force what it looks like to be a cut above the rest. She cocked the rifle.

"Let's go," she said, determined. But she had just started for the steps when Nick grabbed her wrist.

"Uhhh...where are you going?" he asked her shortly.

"Back to where we should be," she replied slowly.

He scoffed. "Carrots, come on." He gestured to the window. "Never, ever, ever do you ever give up the high ground. Especially when you have a long-range sniper rifle."

"Oh, yeah," Judy said sarcastically, spotting a large hole in his plan. "That'll work. Just a quick question: that's one window. There are two of us. So what do you suggest we do? Take turns?"

He snapped his fingers and pointed at her. "Great idea. I'll grab the first shift."

Judy gave a noise of disbelief. "That was supposed to make your idea sound ridiculous."

"Oooh," he said, inhaling through his teeth. "That's a logical fallacy, Carrots. Not good. Not good at all."

Judy scrambled to find any excuse to refrain from shooting anything. Wait...Who was looking for Wolford and McHorn?

* * *

"Chief Bogo!"

Judy ran to the buffalo as he swiveled around to address her.

"What do you want, Hopps?" he asked, a bit of hostility on his voice.

"Sorry, Chief," she apologized quickly. "But who's working on the Wolford case?"

The chief looked at the ground, thinking. "Good point, Hopps. But don't you want to help your family?"

She was about to reply, to say she wanted to stay here after all, but then she caught a glimpse of Klaus behind the chief. The German shepherd met her gaze and gave her a friendly smile and a thumbs up. She looked back at the chief.

"They're in good hands," she told him. "I'd never forgive myself if those two suffered because of my selfishness."

Bogo nodded slowly. "Okay, Hopps. Go off and find them. And you will find them," he added in an "or else" voice.

"Will do, Chief," she said, saluting him. Back to Nick she ran, bearing the news. The house flew by her eyes, the stairs were no obstacle to her instinctive jumping ability. "Nick! Nick!" she called out to him as she burst into the room. "We don't have to kill-"

And she stopped. Her face fell. Nick wasn't here. Where could he be?

Sniff. Sniff. Sniff-sniff-sniff. Sniiiiiff. She heard him smelling investigatively. "Nick?" she said uncertainly. 'Where are you?" As she turned around, she witnessed the fox crawling around on all fours, nose to the ground and ears laid back in a position of alertness. He looked up at her and beckoned for her to come with him.

"Nick, what are you -?"

"Ssh!" he said shortly. "Follow." It was a whisper, as if he was attempting to sneak through a security compound with utmost secrecy. Still not sure what he was sniffing for, she heeded his request and followed him. Up and down walls he sniffed, searching for something unknown, Judy assumed, to even he himself. Nick looked through each room with scrutiny, and Judy was no closer to figuring out what he was trying to learn. Finally, he stood up with a look of great fear on his face.

"Judy." His tone was foreboding. "There aren't any clocks in this house. Excepting the broken one above the stove."

Judy didn't know why that was a problem. "Yeah. Ever since my parents got smartphones, they've decided that clocks are obsolete and unnecessary. So?"

"So…" Nick said, "if they don't have any clocks…" He held up a finger and pointed to the ceiling. Judy didn't know what he was talking about. And then she heard it. The faint, rhythmic sound. Tick. Tick. Tick. Tick…

"...what in the hell is making that ticking noise?"

Judy's first assumption was far from helpful. Bomb? she mouthed. Nick widened his eyes in agreement. "But where is it?" he asked.

"I'll listen for it." Judy perked her ears up. It wasn't coming from this room. It was near the stairs. She walked out carefully, motioning for Nick to follow her. The noise was getting louder. The stairs would lead to the source. The source was downstairs. She tiptoed down each step with caution. The noise was coming from the left, and it was louder. She turned to the left. Where was it? Where was the source? She scanned the room, looking for anything different. Then she felt Nick tap her shoulder.

"Carrots," he whispered, pointing to a box underneath the table. "There."

Judy approached the box carefully, knowing that if it was indeed a bomb, it could go off at any moment. "Nick," she whispered, turning around and getting his attention. "What does it smell like?"

Nick closed his eyes and smelled, and with each sniff he lifted his nose higher. "It doesn't smell like a bomb," he said quietly. He kept sniffing. "But it's bad news, Judy. Very bad news."

Judy turned back to the box, stepping on the balls of her feet, slowly making her way to the mystery box. She stretched out a paw and took hold of the lid, and slowly, ever so slowly, she lifted it and found what lurked inside of it. A red canister. A white warning on the side. And plastered to the top...a timer set to blow in two seconds.

It was pure instinct: Judy leaped up, yelled "BOMB!" and dove away from the lethal device. She felt Nick's body hit her right arm; he was still in the initial stage of retreat. With one forceful movement, at the strength of which even she was surprised, Judy tackled him to the ground and spread her body out like a pancake, acting as a shield for her partner. A concussive wave ripped through her insides, jolting her senses as the bomb detonated. But it wasn't an explosion. Heat snapped at her back as she scrambled to her feet, and as the carnage met her eyes, she knew what it was.

The canister hadn't been a bomb. It had been a flammable substance set to blow and provide her with a fiery demise. She heard Nick clambering to his feet, and once he saw the flames licking the ceiling, his voice turned much more urgent. "Carrots, run!"

Judy didn't need to be told twice; she grabbed Nick's paw and spin around, ready to escape her burning home. She rounded the corner and worked her way through the kitchen, still keeping a very firm hold on Nick's paw. She wove through furniture, appliances, and everything else that flashed by her as she focused on nothing but escape. As she worked her way to the back of the house, she threw open a door and came face to face with -

"Klaus?" Nick said it as if he hoped he was hallucinating.

The canine gave a twisted smile as he held them both at gunpoint. "Well, now, what do we have here?" He gave a low, evil chuckle.

Judy began to panic. "What are you doing?" she demanded. "Who are working for? I swear, if you've done anything to my family -"

"Oh, Officer Hopps," he started in an amused tone, his pistol never deviating from her forehead. "I don't want anything to happen to your family. Of that much I am certain."

"Answer her question, von Thirteen."

The German shepherd cocked his head and looked at Nick. "Very, very good, Mr. Wilde. You speak German."

"Ich kenne genug Deutsche heraus zu schnüffeln, böse, sadistischen fickt wie Sie," came Nick's anger-filled reply.

Klaus gasped, pretending to be offended. "Sadistic? No, no, Nicholas, I'm certainly not sadistic. Just playing for the winning team." He loaded the chamber of his weapon. A shiver of fear went through Judy's body. Is this how it would all end? Her hopes, her dreams, her life taken away from her by a rogue agent?

"This is it?" she said, her voice breaking with both anger and tears. "You worked for Big and Bellwether, and now you're going to kill us off? My life ends with a traitor being controlled by a coward who's too afraid to cut ties herself?"

The wolf shivered for only a second, then, without warning, zapped into nothingness. And there, standing in Judy's FURRIE and matching glasses, was Dawn Bellwether, much shorter and maniacal-looking than the menacing Klaus.

Judy gasped in horror. She felt her eyes open wide. Bellwether gave her an odd look, then glanced down at her gun-wielding hoof. her facial expression changed to one of realization.

"Oh, bother," she said shortly.

It happened in a second: Bellwether shifted the weapon's trajectory and pulled the trigger. Judy couldn't track the bullet as fast as it zipped by her ear, but she heard Nick yelp in pain. She turned around to see him fall to the ground, clutching his neck.

"NO!" she yelled, falling to her knees and turning him over. He was whimpering in fear, and tears filled his eyes. As he brought his paw away from his throat, a string of blue liquid followed his paw pad. Night howler. Judy couldn't stomach it. Dread trapped her mind, shooting through her nerves. "No, Nick…" She begged an invisible force to spare his sanity. "No, please…"

"What did I tell you, Judy?" Bellwether gloated. "'Us little guys gotta stick together?' And you had to ruin everything. We could have ruled Zootopia, Judy. The prey could have had the upper hand. And what do you do? You decide that a predator…" She pointed to Nick. "A single, useless predator was more important than the safety of prey!"

Judy shook with rage as she looked at the sheep in pure hatred.

"How did you know where my parents lived?" she demanded.

"Well, I just filled in for the singer, of course," Bellwether replied. "Nothing too difficult. Just introduce yourself as a different animal, ask where someone lives - not directly, of course - and they'll just talk for hours about their humble abodes."

"You were Herb?"

"Uh...duh," Bellwether said. "Bellwether. Herb Wellet. It's a pseudonym. Hel-looo." She glanced at Nick. "I'm surprised your worthless boyfriend didn't figure it out."

"Nick...isn't….worthless." Judy spat each word with fury.

Bellwether gave the same laugh she had given when she had shot Nick the first time. "You're right, Judy. He's going to kill you, and you've been a thorn in my side for quite some time. That's far from worthless. You do have a point." Bellwether laughed. "Bye bye, Judy."

And then Judy heard it: Nick's weak voice.

"I...won't."

She cast a glance at him. Judy watched as Nick met Bellwether's gaze with defiance.

"I'm sorry, fox boy." Her voice was deathly innocent. "What did you say?"

Judy looked back and forth between them as they exchanged words.

"I'll never...hurt...the animals...I love."

A rush of affection for Nick coursed through Judy's veins.

"She's prey, Wilde," Bellwether snapped. "You're a predator. This is what you do. You hunt prey. You kill prey. You eat prey. Now be a good fox and chase the bunny."

As she said it, Nick started howling and rolling around. Judy put a hand on his back, but he jerked away from it, emitting a deep, primal growl. And just as fast as he had changed, he came back.

"This won't happen," he told himself through gritted teeth.

Bellwether cackled. "You see, Judy," she started, "It's in their DNA. They can't resist the allure of the taste of blood. Especially after a bit of night howler." She twirled her pistol about her index finger. "And this is the new, improved formula. Super concentrated flower power, honey. Works on predators and prey. And I checked the cartridge." She gave a mock-cute giggle. "No blueberries in this one! All he needed was a bit of a pep talk from me. He'll succumb to the drug eventually."

Nick started huffing and growling again. As he turned to look at Judy, one last trace of fear lurked behind his green eyes. He was silently begging her for help, but there was nothing she could do. Smoke began to thicken. Judy's eyes began to water, responding to the black cloud of what used to be her home. The fire was spreading quickly.

"Well, I'll leave you two to sort things out, Judy," Bellwether said as she stepped around her victim's FURRIE and opened the door, still pointing the gun at Judy. "And remember, Jude, in the words of Deaf Leopard…" She cackled and gave Judy a chillingly psychotic look. "Love bites."

The second the door slammed and Bellwether disappeared, Judy grabbed Nick's shoulder with both hands, shaking his limp body.

"Nick!" Anything that came to mind, she used. Whatever she had to do to bring him back, she would do. "Nick!" she coughed, still shaking him. Nothing. Not a growl, not a whimper, not a single movement.

Judy threw caution to the wind: with both paws, she turned him over and began CPR. One, two, three...she counted every time she pushed on his unmoving chest. She fought tears and sobs back as she pinched his snout and exhaled into his mouth. And then she repeated the process again, and again, and again. Finally, she stopped and looked at Nick's open mouth and closed eyes, where nary a movement could be seen. He was gone. Nick was dead. But wait! His pulse! Judy pressed two fingers to his throat.

Faint. Weak. Slow. Thump. Thump. Thump. His heart was still beating! Judy felt a strong sense of relief. But there was no time. The flames had found their way to the kitchen and were hot on her cottontail. She threw Nick's arm over her shoulders and began to drag him back to the door that Bellwether had used.

Wait. Bellwether. If they went through that door, she might be lying in wait to shoot at them again - this time with real bullets. Judy quickly spun one hundred and eighty degrees and dragged herself towards the front of the house. It was a long shot, but she had to try. The smoke was thicker now, and she couldn't breathe without taking in a heavy load of ash through her mouth. Her vision was blurring. Her lungs filled with smoke. Her legs were weak. She felt her knees buckle, and her lower legs slammed to the ground, followed by the rest of her body. There she lay in the ruins of the fruits of her parents' labor, slowly losing consciousness next to the one animal that she cared about most. Nick. She was going to die here with Nick. He was still unmoving. She could barely open her eyes. And here they would be swallowed by the merciless monster of history: two faceless animals who died in a house fire. She closed her eyes, praying that she would fall asleep before she burned to death.

Movement. Weightlessness. Someone was picking her up. She groaned weakly, a failed attempt to ask for the identity of her savior. Slowly, she opened her eyes.

Nick was clearly hurting. Tears streamed down his muzzle and clashed with the soot on his face, ruining his normally lustrous fur. His arms and body shook with tremendous effort. And as he looked down at her, Judy could make out an exhausted expression of love and caring.

"I gotcha, Carrots," he said quietly. "I gotcha."

Back to the door they went. Into the midday sun they walked. Nick raised his voice.

"HELP!" he yelled, his voice cracking. "HELP!"

Then he fell down, hitting the ground with a fwump. Judy tumbled out of his paws and onto the dirt. It was painful, very painful. She looked at him, and he returned the favor.

"Nick…" she said. Her voice was weak.

"This love…" he said, "Doesn't…bite." And his ears drooped, his eyes closed, and he was silent.

"We have two animals in dire need of medical assistance. Get the paramedics over here now!"

The yelling of the SWAT teams got softer and softer as Judy drifted, gave a quiet sob, and fell into a pit of painless sleep.

* * *

Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep.

Taunting colors. Blurry shapes. Painful breathing. Where am I? The question flooded Judy's mind. All she could hear was the beeping. The slow, monotonous beeping. She listened for her heartbeat. Thump-beep. Thump-beep. Thump-beep. The beep had to be a heart monitor. After all, what else synchronized perfectly with your heartbeat? But...but if she had a heart monitor attached to her, then...she had to be in the hospital.

Judy tried to fully open her eyes. The room cleared up. Everything was as crisply visible as it should be. The ceiling fan, the walls, the heart monitor. She looked down at her own bed. Hospital-standard sheets blanketed her aching body. Her left arm had been pierced by an IV, which was, she assumed, providing a morphine drip. When she turned her head to the right, she glimpsed a flash of the tip of a red ear peeking up over the large pillow. A fox. Nick. Judy could only hope that the animal next to her wasn't Nick. Please, she begged the same faceless deity she had groveled to after the night howler had infected him. Don't let it be Nick.

A twist. A click. Judy turned her head yet again to the door. The doctor. The doctor that had helped Lionheart in the Cliffside Asylum. The badger gave Judy a kind smile.

"Ah, Officer Hopps," she said, making her way to Judy's bedside. "I'm glad to see that we're feeling a bit better."

Judy propped herself up. She had a thousand questions. But which to ask first? They came spewing from her mouth uncontrollably, like a hyperactive child.

"What happened? Where am I? How long have I been out? What's happened to my family?" She fell silent at the doctor's raised paw.

"Well, Judy," the badger began, "you had a buildup of ash in your lungs, almost as bad as a smoker in their second year of cigarette use. Luckily, that's such a small amount that we were easily able to remove all of it. You've already made a full recovery and should be released before the end of the day."

Judy had to know. "What about…?" She nodded to the fox she assumed was Nick.

"Ah, yes," the badger said solemnly. "Officer Wilde. I have good news and bad news." The badger walked to Nick's bed and put a paw on it. "The good news, Officer Hopps, is that he will survive."

Judy was fearing a permanent disability. "And the bad news?"

Nick's bed moved. He was turning over. Judy watched in apprehension, and as his eyes met hers, he gasped in pain.

"Hey, Carrots," he wheezed in a quiet voice with a smile that looked like he was in pure agony. "I guess…too much…happened at once."

The badger provided Judy with her diagnosis. "Nick's body gave an unpredictable reaction to the night howler. As a result, he became heavily fatigued and suffered dehydration and further exhaustion from the fire. He'll need more time to recover...perhaps a week or so. That seems most likely."

Judy felt a rush of painful sympathy and injustice. He was the one who saved her life. She was the one who should be feeling like her throat was about to go dry. She should be forced to suffer the fate of a week in a hospital bed.

"Nick…" Words failed her. "I'm sorry. So…" She struggled against the tears that were fighting to roll through her fur. She swallowed. "...so sorry."

He gave an exhausted, understanding smile. "It's not your fault. Let's not forget…I was the one being carried…before you fell down."

A slow, heavy exhale brought Judy's attention to the doctor.

"Here's the crazy thing," she said. "Mister Wilde survived because of that energy drink he had for breakfast that day. It appears that an unidentifiable compound in the drink enables predators to, if they are motivated enough, resist the night howler serum and render it completely ineffective." She gestured to Nick. "Though, of course, it comes at the cost of a temporary personal sacrifice. I'm sure Officer Wilde's current condition proves my point."

"Nick…" Judy still couldn't accept that she would be out of the hospital sooner than he would. "I deserve to be stuck here, not you."

Nick laughed. "You are st-stuck here, Carrots. At least...for the rest of...the day.."

"Hold on." Judy had just realized something. "You said the energy drink he had for breakfast that day," she told the doctor, now realizing that Nick's hyper observance was starting to rub off on her. "What day is it now?"

The badger fidgeted a bit uncomfortably. "It's been six days since the accident."

Judy could do nothing to stop her mouth from dropping open. Six days. One hundred forty-four hours. Eight thousand, six hundred forty minutes of her life gone, never to return. Nearly a week of emotions, of events, of life, devoured by the jaws of fate. Six days closer to the end…

Judy had to know. "What happened to my family?"

The door opened again, and the badger was forced to abort the sentence she had just started. There stood Chief Bogo with a folder in his hand. The second he made eye contact with Judy, he hurried to her.

"Chief Bogo, sir," the badger started, "visiting hours are over, sir."

The buffalo brandished the folder at her. "This is police business, Doctor. And believe me, this is actually for Hopps's benefit. Like I care," he added as an afterthought.

The badger nodded understandingly. "I appreciate that, sir, but I'm afraid I cannot leave my patients until I am sure they will be all right without me."

"I never said you couldn't hear what I have to say," came Bogo's short reply, turning his back to the doctor and facing Judy.

"Hopps, Wilde…" He looked at them as he said their names. "There's been s breakthrough in the Wolford-McHorn case." He gave a heavy sigh. "They were discovered washed up on the riverbank in Savanna Central. And...they weren't moving."

Dread and fright shocked Judy, zapping through her entire body. "They...they're dead?"

The chief sighed morosely and looked at her with very sorrowful eyes. "They were pronounced deceased on-scene two days ago. I'm sorry, Hopps. It brings me great pain to say that your case has been closed. Wolford and McHorn have been found, after all." He sighed again. "Great. Now I have to face their spouses and children. Perfect."

"Chief…" Nick wheezed. "Her family...what happened?"

"It was a bluff, an attempt to divert police resources." The answer tore through Judy's heart so mercilessly she wished it had been a bullet. Why did they do it? Did two hundred lives really mean so little to them? Was it a fear tactic. "Why?" She hoped the question would prompt Bogo to elaborate and spare her some breath.

The chief knit his eyebrows. "We don't know," he said slowly. "There hasn't been a major crime committed since the accident, and nothing looks noticeably more ominous than usual."

"Doc…" Nick's voice came. "We've got...to tell the...chief...something important. Something…classified. Police work…"

"Oh," the doctor said. "I gotcha. You guys appear to be able to handle yourselves." She got up and left the room, but not before casting a backwards glance of uncertainty at them.

As soon as the door closed, Judy saw Nick roll over and address the chief.

"Chief…we saw...Bell...wether."

The chief's eyes widened in fear, but only for a second; he was soon his usual angry self again.

"Really?" he said. "Where?"

"She was wearing my FURRIE, Chief. She posed as a SWAT unit and then must have planted a bomb while we were looking for weapons up in my parents' bedroom."

"And if she was there, and she was in disguise," the chief said skeptically, "how could you have possibly known it was her?"

Judy faltered. "I...I…" She had the answer, but it sounded ridiculous even to her.

"She said the…magic words, Chief," Nick jumped in.

The buffalo looked at him. "What are you blabbering about, Wilde?"

Judy drew his attention back to her. "Well, Chief, you deactivate FURRIEs by saying, 'Cut ties.' When you do, your FURRIE - modified to react to your voice only, I might add - releases you and you become your own self again. Once that happens, the machine stops holding on to you and you can go about your business. In this case, Bellwether was wearing my FURRIE, and I inadvertently ended a sentence with 'cut ties.' She was ejected from the suit, shot Officer Wilde, and escaped before we could do anything. The SWAT teams couldn't start a search for her, because they thought the mafia was coming, but it was only a…"

And it clicked. Judy understood what happened. Bellwether had planned on being there and killing both of them, but she needed a heck of a distraction. So she planted the fire bomb in the house to get SWAT's attention and focus them on the fire, not her. She walked into the house disguised as Klaus, likely pretending she was going to look for Nick and Judy, then confronted them, nearly killed both of them, and lived to see another day.

"...diversion," she finished. "The attack was a diversion so she could kill us."

"That's...cold," Nick said.

"No kidding, Wilde," the chief agreed. He looked at the folder, then snapped it shut, startling Judy. The IV tube began to hurt again.

"Apologies, Hopps," the chief said indifferently.

"You should...have your own...motivational...card company, Chief."

"Cram a crumpet in it, Wilde." The chief started through the door, but paused and glanced at them. "I'll have mission assignments for you when you get out."

The instant the door closed behind him, Judy fixed her eyes on Nick.

"Are you okay?"

He nodded. "I've had...near-death exp-experiences before."

"God, Nick, I'm so sorry." Judy repeatedly threw the back of her head against her pillow in self-loathing. "If only I wasn't...so...stupid!" Her sentences paused each time she pulled her head back in preparation to slam it against the bed again. "

Weak...idiotic...useless...mother…fu-"

"Judy!" Nick's voice was broken, but his meaning was clear. Judy stopped herself from finishing her sentence and looked at him. He looked agonized but firm in his position in the conversation.

"Please," he asked her, his voice reverting to its weak, scratchy stage. "Don't ev-ever do that to y-yourself."

But Judy couldn't relent.

"Nick, that's sweet of you, really. But if I hadn't fallen, you might have been okay." She gave a bitter chuckle. "God. If I hadn't gotten so hung up with my dream of being a cop, we wouldn't even be here. This is my fault. All of this is my fault."

Nick looked at her with a level passion she could barely begin to comprehend. "I'm glad you did," he said. "If you hadn't...I'd...never have...met you. I'd never...never have changed. I'd never have...loved."

The all-too-familiar rush of affection hit Judy at full force. "Not even with May?"

Nick chuckled. "Fair enough. But in this case...I'm glad...that o-opposites at...tract."

Judy smiled at him. "I'd kiss you if we could move."

Nick returned her smile and placed his paw on his lips. Judy heard the smack of a kiss, and he fully extended his arm towards her. Judy understood; she, too, brought her paw to her mouth, kissed it, and reached for Nick's outstretched paw, intertwining her fingers with his.

In that one moment, an inexplicably deep sense of devotion to the generous, loving, selfless fox seized Judy's mind and body, and, though she might now know it yet, would bind their souls together for the rest of their lives. His kind green eyes were the only things Judy wanted to gaze into. She was surprised to feel a tear of joy fall from her own eye, but what was more beautiful was Nick's own tear, slipping away from his own eyelids in synchronization with hers. If this is what true love is, Judy thought, she didn't want to lose it for the world. "I love you, Nick."

Nick smiled. "Judy, my darling...I love you more...than life...itself."

"Let me know if there's anything I can do for you, Nick." And Judy meant anything; whatever she needed to do to ease his life, she would do.

"Well, I can think of something...I'd like you to do for me, but…" He gave a chuckle. "I'm not yet up...to the task."

Judy knew exactly what he was talking about. "Whenever you want, partner." She squeezed his hand. "Forget my father. If he can't accept us, then he can just shove that fox taser up his -"

Nick held up his other paw to stop her, and she heeded him. "Your father...has accepted me...as a p-part of the family, Judy."

The news was miraculous, so much so that Judy had a hard time believing it. "Wh-what? Did I hear you correctly?"

Nick nodded as enthusiastically as he could with his injuries. "When you were..still out, he came in and said that...if a fox was willing enough to...risk his life...in order to s-save a rabbit's daughter...then the fox's motives...his motives are pure. Then he said...s-something like 'There go the floodgates' and started crying."

Judy laughed. "That sounds like him, all right."

Nick grinned. "So he's...okay with us...being...together," he told her.

"I'll go talk to him after I'm released."

Judy was ecstatic. Her father was finally accepting her for who she was: a grown-up daughter with absolute freedom. He couldn't beat her, so he decided to join her...and she knew it. She didn't even have to talk to him to know that he was turning a new leaf. She rubbed her hand against Nick's rough palm pad, savoring the feeling. "I love you, Nick," she said.

He gave her a grateful, slightly wearisome look. "I love you too, Carrots." He held up his other paw to show Judy her pen, pressing the button as he did so. "I love you, Nick." Rewind. "I love you, Nick." Rewind. "I love you, Nick."

Judy groaned. "You're never gonna let me hear the end of that, are you?"

Nick shook his head. "Not for all the...jumbo pops...I can melt down. Though I do have...a question. How did Bell...Belllwether...understand what I...s-said...in German?"

Judy thought she knew the answer to this one. "Well, when I was in the casino," she said slowly, "I took a shot of root beer, which should have killed me, right?"

Nick gave her a look that made him seem impressed. "Yeah...it should have."

"Well, here I am. And then there was that little Russian interlude Kozlov and I had while we were pretending to be the readers of his father's will, right? I actually thought of this when I was drinking that shot. It must be the FURRIE. After all, I don't even know a single word of Russian, and I hate intoxicating drinks. So somehow, the FURRIE must copy some lurking attributes in addition to voice distortion and mirroring disguise."

"Wow," Nick said simply. "That's a...high-tech...piece of equipment."

The door opened again. This time, it was a zebra; Judy presumed he was a nurse.

"Officer Hopps, we'll just take you off the IV and you're free to go," he said.

Judy turned to Nick again. "I'll visit you, Nick."

He smiled. "I'd...like that...very much."


	10. Judy Strangles Her Boyfriend

Judy sighed and rubbed her face with her paw, trying to banish just enough of her sleepiness to focus on the mission. The case file before her was monstrous, and she had barely started. Weaselton had gotten out again and was at large. An APB was already out on him, his last known sighting was near the Mystic Springs Oasis, and...Judy racked her brain? What was she just thinking about? Uggh, this was really hard work. Her brain couldn't keep up with this right now. Of course, she _could_ just turn in for the night right now and pick up the figurative baton when it wasn't 2:00 in the morning. Yeah. Yeah, that sounded like the smart option. She left the folder open on her desk, turned the lamp off, climbed into her somewhat uncomfortable bed, and closed her eyes, hoping to drift off before the sun rose.

"Shut up!"

" _You_ shut up!"

" _You_ shut up!"

Judy gave an angry frown. For the love of Pete, did those two _ever_ stop arguing? She grabbed her cuffs and opened her door, determined to put an end to this stupid argument. With three firm knocks, she made her presence known. The door swung open and one of her angry kudu neighbors presented himself. He looked down at her and said, "Listen, cutie-"

"Zip it, Jack." If there was one thing that irked Judy more than anything else in the world, it was definitely being called "cute." And if an animal had _already_ gotten on her bad side...well, then they'd better look out. This guy had managed to meet the requirements for the latter. She continued to go off at him, not planning on relent anytime soon. "I've just about had it with your constant babbling. Now this is your first warning. Stay quiet, and we won't have any problems."

"So now the cops are able to infringe on my freedom of speech, is that it, bunny?" Her neighbor was far from compliant.

"Strike two, horns," she bit back. "And believe you me, if I have to give you the red card, I'll arrest you for interfering with a police investigation." She flashed the cuffs. "I might have my hands full, but I can sure as heck get you down to the station in the wee hours of the morning."

"Okay, okay, jeez!" The neighbor backed off. "I'll shut up!"

Oh thank God, Judy thought to herself. "Good. And tell your roommate while you're at it."The neighbor closed the door, and Judy breathed a sigh of relief. But as she turned back to get some sleep, she found that, leaning in the doorway, was Nick.

"You're hot when you're mad," he said. "I suddenly have a, uh...rising matter to attend to thanks to your little banter session."

A feeling overtook Judy with no warning. What it was, she had no idea, but the next thing she knew, she had thrown her arms around Nick's neck and kissed him on the cheek.

"Gkkk...Carrots...yur...choaggin' me," she heard him sputter. She immediately let him go.

"I'm sorry, Nick," she said; concern was now the emotion taking control of her senses.

"It's all right," the fox gasped as he rubbed his throat.

"Aren't you supposed to be at the hospital?" Judy asked him.

"Nope. Just released." Nick got his moxie back. "I'm a free fox now. And the first thing I wanted to do was come by and see you. I mean, your light was on, so it stood to reason that you must have been awake. I came up right as you knocked on that kudu's door. And man, did you read him the riot act." He jerked his thumb, gesturing to something behind him. "Took a looky look at that case file. I have no idea what it's about, but I'm sure we'll have fun with whatever it is."

"Oh, it doesn't matter right now. Thanks for checking in on me, Nick," Judy said. "It means a lot to me."

Nick hugged her tenderly. " _You_ mean a lot to me, Carrots."

Judy chuckled approvingly. "Smart fox," she said, commending his quick thinking."

Nick kissed her on the head. "Dumb bunny," he replied. Judy felt profuse euphoria echo throughout her body. Nick was the only one she could even think of as a candidate for her life partner. So caring, so comforting, so compassionate. She allowed herself to melt in his arms, leaving all of her recent angst and exhaustion in the past. She belonged here, in his embrace. She would follow him to the ends of the earth if she had to, as long as they were together. She felt Nick relax his grip, and she did the same. The moment had passed, but Judy knew, in the back of her mind, that she'd always remember it. She would reminisce about the early morning that Nick had showed up at her door after getting out of the hospital and just held her tenderly.

"Go home and get some sleep, Nick. We've still got work tomorrow," she said.

"Ahhh, the chief's an understanding guy," Nick replied sarcastically. "He'll let it slide."

Judy couldn't help but laugh. Soon, she heard Nick join in. "Always the joker, Nick," she told him.

"He-heh," he replied. "Well, I've got to keep our spirits up somehow, what with...you know…" His face fell. "Wolford and McHorn."

It brought Judy back to earth rapidly. He had a point. "I'll just go to bed now," she muttered, grasping for an excuse to leave the conversation.

"Yeah...sorry," Nick said, rubbing the back of his neck. "I didn't mean to ruin the fun like that. I just -" He stopped abruptly. "I'll just go now."

Judy nodded. "Uh-huh, okay," she said quietly. She watched Nick leave. He seemed ashamed from the back; clearly, he had made himself feel bad. Finally, Judy couldn't stand it. "Nick!" she called out.

He turned and met her eyes. "Yeah?"

"It's okay, Nick," she started. "It wasn't your fault. We had no way to save them. We were unconscious."

Nick hung his head. "I know, Judy, but if we hadn't been so slow, we might have -"

"No, Nick." Judy couldn't believe what she was hearing. Slow? Really? "We were going as fast as we could."

"I know, but…" He shook his head sullenly. "It just seems like there was so much more we could have done...so much we _should_ have done."

Judy walked to him rapidly and cradled his cheek in her hand. "You can't think like that Nick. It's not true, and you know it."

"I do, Judy, I really do know it," he told her. "I just...can't help it. I always blame myself."

"Please don't, Nick. Don't do that to yourself." Judy found herself being slowly taken over by lust. But how to get Nick to agree? He was a hard one to get, that was for sure. But she was determined to make things between them more...intimate. "You know," she said in an attempt to be seductive, "the bed in my apartment's a bit big for me on my own. If you wanted, you could stay and sleep here."

He looked at her with a mixture of desire and hesitancy. Clearly, he was seriously thinking about taking her up on the offer. "W-well, that's very n-nice of you, Judy, but, uh…" He stopped. "I...uhh…"

"Come on, fox! Get it in already!"

Judy was finished with this guy. It was one thing to be loud at his roommate, but to be both loud and inconsiderate of other animals? "I'll cuff you for sexual harassment if you don't button it, buster!"

"You know he'll make a move soon, bunny!" came the reply.

Judy swore under her breath. "Stupid kudu."

Nick chuckled. "Just let it go, Carrots. We'll do this some other time." He looked down. "Now I've just to wait until that thing's not sticking straight out." He then promptly pecked Judy on the cheek. "I'll see you soon."

Judy sighed, a bit disappointed that he had turned down what could have been a very special experience. "See you soon, Nick." And with that, Nick disappeared with a swish of his long, bushy tail.

Judy made her way back to her apartment, sat down on the bed, and stared at the blank wall. Maybe next time, she thought, would be more fulfilling. She pulled the covers over her body and closed her eyes, hoping it would all be okay. If only Wolford and McHorn were still alive, maybe if they hadn't been so slow...Now she was thinking like Nick. Great. Now who was blaming them? It wasn't your fault, Judy, she told herself. You have nothing to be ashamed of. What were you supposed to do, after all? You were unconscious for a week. Their deaths were not the result of your actions. Judy rubbed her eyes. You need sleep, Hopps.

And she shut out all thought and focused only on sinking into the mattress, silently coaxing herself to sleep.

* * *

 _Bang!_

"Carrots! Wake up!"

Judy jumped up, startled from her slumber. She clenched her paws together, fists ready to attack whoever was there. Then she realized it was Nick, who was panting heavily and looking at her with a bit of excitement and, oddly enough, a bit of concern. A bag was slung over his shoulder.

"Calm down, Judy," he said, holding his free paw up in the universal gesture of surrender. "I have big news."

Judy looked at the clock. "Oh, no! I overslept!"

"Carrots, listen to me," Nick said in a tone of utmost importance. "Wolford's alive."

Judy felt a strong sense of disbelief. "No, the chief said his body washed up on the riverbank."

Nick raised a cocky eyebrow. "Then why did I just get a phone call from the fuzzy gambler?"

Now he had Judy's attention; how could he have possibly been contacted by a dead wolf? "What?" she asked.

Nick pulled out his phone with his free hand and held it in front of her face. "Listen to this," he instructed her before pressing a button on the screen. A conversation ensued.

" _Hello?"_ came Nick's digitized voice.

" _Wilde?"_ Judy gasped; it _was_ Wolford!

" _Officer Wolford?"_

" _Oh, thank God,"_ came Wolford's relieved voice. _"Listen to me closely. McHorn and I have been taken hostage by Bellwether. There a bunch of us, and everyone else is from a different area outside of Zootopia. These bastards are probably trying to keep a low profile by snatching a couple of animals from each part of the world."_

" _Hold on, Wolford. Where are you?"_

" _I...don't know. All I remember is the crash, and then suddenly I'm buck-ass naked being injected with some kind of enhanced night howler. It's pure luck that I was able to create a phone-like device to contact someone on the force. I have limited time here, so don't ask any questions. All I know is that I'm somewhere in the Rainforest District. I don't know where McHorn is. He might be in this place, he might not, but I pray that he isn't. This is hell on earth. I can't keep it together. I can feel this - this bloodlust building up in my head. It's messing with my psychology, rewriting my brain. I'm reverting back to my predatory instincts. Every animal I see is potential prey. Even now, I'm fighting back the urge to go primal. Please...get me the hell out of here. I have a kid, a son. I don't want him to lose his father. Whatever you have to do, do it. Just get me and the rest of us out of here. No animal should have to go through this. Ever."_

" _Okay, Wolford. I'll let the chief know what's going on. Just hold out until we get there. I haven't given up on you, and it'd be pretty inconsiderate of you if you died before I got there."_

A bitter chuckle came from Wolford's end of the conversation. _"Will do. Now to destroy this thing before they -"_

A door opened, and it sounded like Wolford had gasped.

" _I've got to go, Wilde."_ And with that, the call ended.

Judy was ecstatic. "He's still alive! But, then...who was on the...beach?" She had just thought of something she was begging some higher power to prove false. FURRIEs. THe two dead animals must have been FURRIEs. And there was only one organization that made FURRIEs - the FDA. "No," she said aloud, her face falling. "Not Jay?"

Nick cocked his head at her. "What do you -?" His face dawned with understanding. "Oh. Oh, no. That's bad."

Judy grabbed her case file and dashed out of the door, dodging around the fox, who quickly got out of her way. "Come on, Nick! We have to warn the chief!"

"Hold on, Carrots!" Nick's voice protested from behind her. "You can't stroll into the ZPD in your jammies!"

Judy stopped. What? She looked down to find herself dressed in her pajamas. Normally, she would be annoyed at herself, but she had no time. She dashed back into her apartment and closed the door, but as soon as she did, she realized Nick was still in the room. The fox averted his eyes and walked away, closing the door behind him.

"Ill give you a little privacy," he said before the door shut.

Judy slammed her case file on the table and stripped herself down to nothing, quickly grabbing clothing from her dresser drawer and throwing it all on haphazardly. Her underclothes, her uniform, her badge, her utility belt - on it went, rapidly and efficiently. Finally, once her outfit was appropriate for the occasion, she grabbed her case, threw the door open, and blew past Nick once again.

"Wow, and I thought cheetahs were fast runners," she heard him comment as she raced her tail off out of the apartment complex.

Judy stopped for nothing; she ran past her neighbors, acquaintances, and even her landlady, Dharma.

"Oh, greetings, Judy," the armadillo said to Judy calmly, as if it were just another remark made in a calm conversation with a friend. "I appreciate your efficiency as far as paying rent is concerned."

"Yeah, no problem!" Judy hollered over her shoulder, still clutching the case file to her chest to avoid losing it. Don't stop, don't stop. The chief needs to hear about this…

Judy finally saw her car parked in the lot of the apartment suite. She had made it without any delays! The driver's door flew open as she grabbed the handle and scrambled into the seat. Her key! She had forgotten her key! Judy's spirits sank. And then she saw Nick, running with a clenched paw in the air.

"Missing something?" he called to her as he approached the passenger door, his paw still clenched. He buckled up and closed the door, and only then did he open his paw and give Judy her car key.

"Thanks, Nick," she said, taking the key as she simultaneously kissed his cheek.

Nick blushed and rubbed his neck, clearly a bit embarrassed.

Judy started the car and peeled out of the parking lot, wasting no time in getting to the station. All the other cars seemed to cooperate as she sped along: no one was going slower than the speed limit, and very few cars were on the street in the middle of the work day. But as Judy continued to burn rubber to the ZPD, a thought seeded itself in her mind.

"Hey, Nick?" she asked, trying to get his attention.

"Yeah?" the fox replied.

"What if…" That was a weak way to ask the question. "Let's just say that…" She didn't know how to ask him. "Could there be a chance that - I mean, how do we know…"

Nick gave an amused chuckle. "Spit it out already, Judy," he said mock-tauntingly.

"Well, if we have FURRIEs that change our voices, how do we know that this isn't Bellwether using a FURRIE to lead us into a trap?"

She turned to see his face washed over with worry. "That'd be very bad, Carrots. _Very_ bad. I guess we'll have to get someone to authenticate it." His face suddenly changed, as if he had thought of a silver lining. "But you're still missing your FURRIE, right? So couldn't Bellwether have used it to

"But by then, it'll be too late," Judy reasoned. "How do we get this to the chief and immediately start working on saving them?"

There was a brief pause in the conversation. "Well," Nick responded slowly, as if he was choosing his words carefully. "I think the answer lies within the question. Give the chief my phone...then...I guess we…" He closed his eyes, presumably formulating a plan. "How many vacation days do you have?"

Judy was taken by surprise, keeping her eyes on the road. "I can't remember, but surely there's a better way than that."

"It's better that we lose some spare time than Wolford and McHorn lose their lives," came Nick's reply, and Judy knew that he was right. How was she supposed to refute that? Nick really _did_ have a heart. If only her dad could trust him a bit more. Sure, he might have given Nick the go-ahead to be her boyfriend, but Judy sensed a twinge of resentment still lay, even if it was dormant, in her father's head. A right, turn, a left turn. The station was getting closer.

"So what do we do now, Carrots?" Nick asked her. "Our informant's dead and gone, off to see Grandmama. How do we connect with the criminal underworld to find those two?"

Judy could see the ZPD. "Not now, Nick. We've got to go." She parked in the closest parking space, shut the engine off, and leaped out of the car, yelling, "Bring your phone!" Through the doors she sprinted, bumping into some of the officers that were passing by on her way to Clawhauser. Judy ran to the to cheetah's desk. He saw her coming, and his face lit up.

"Judy!" he cried out, happily munching on his mid-morning doughnut, or perhaps it was his third mid-morning doughnut. "You're fashionably late. And, Nick -" He pointed to Nick's bag. "What's in there?"

Judy was too slow; by the time his bag had gotten into view, Nick had swiped it from view and said, "Uhh...strictly need-to-know, Ben."

"Clawhauser, we need to talk to the chief as soon as possible," Judy panted, reverting to the cheetah. "Tell him it's about the Wolford-McHorn case."

Clawhauser reached for the communications device on his desk. "Okay, but I thought that case was solved," he said uncertainly.

"Those two animals aren't Wolford and McHorn, Ben," Nick's voice came from behind her; he sounded a bit short of breath, as well. "They're impostors. Long story."

Clawhauser nodded as he pressed a button on the comms. "Uh, Chief? Officers Hopps and Wilde are here to talk to you about a break in the Wolford-McHorn case."

" _That MIA is over, Clawhauser. Tell them to go about their assignments. And let Hopps know that she'd better be on time tomorrow or I'll start deducting from her pay for each hour she's not here."_

"Chief, listen to us," Nick said. "Wolford called me this morning and told me where he is. We have actionable intelligence on this, chief. We can't ignore it."

An uncomfortable pause followed Nick's subtle plea for help.

" _You two had better have a VERY good reason for this one, or the next two officers we lose will be much worse off than missing in action."_

Judy gulped and looked at Nick, who shared the same look of discomfort. Back to the lair of the devil...well, water buffalo, technically. Judy made her way through the crowd of animals to the stairs, Nick following closely behind.

"You think he's mad at us?" he asked as they drew nearer to the chief's office, obviously not in the least bit serious.

"Yeah, Nick," Judy said, both irritated at Nick's relentless joking and a bit afraid of what might happen to them in the chief's office. "He's just threatened to kill us. I think he might be a _liiittle_ bit mad at us." After the rush of running, driving, and running again, it was nice to have a bit of a break in the action, even if a less than preferable fate may await them in the chief's office when their pleasant-ish walk ended. They ascended to the chief's door. As Judy stopped in front of it, she was overcome by a voice that told her, "No. Don't do it. It's not worth it." And for a second, she believed it. But only for a second.

You're wrong, she told it. This is worth it. For Wolford. For McHorn. She grabbed the handle, turned it, and slowly opened the door. The chief was sitting at his desk, hooves folded over one another on top of a newspaper. He didn't look very happy.

"This had better be a _very_ damning piece of evidence you have for me, Hopps," he said.

Judy felt extremely intimidated, but she tried to keep it to herself. "Actually, sir, Officer Wilde is the one who has the evidence." she said, indicating Nick with both of her paws held out to her side as if she were presenting a tempting prize to the contestants of a game show.

Nick held his phone up sheepishly. "Chief, I was on patrol when I got a call - I was in the passenger seat, Officer Francine was driving - and I couldn't believe who it was." He advanced to the chief's desk slowly as he talked.

"Would you mind _telling_ me who this 'mystery person' was, Wilde? And furthermore, what you're doing with a bag?"

Nick gulped nervously. "It was Officer Wolford, sir. And it's just a computer, Chief."

The chief's eyes widened in skeptical disbelief. "Show me."

"The bag?"

"No, I mean, let me hear this 'Wolford' impersonator."

Nick unlocked his phone, and Judy couldn't help but think about whatever that number meant. 774...no. 647...that wasn't it either. What was so special to Nick that it was the passcode for his phone?

"This is the audio file," he explained. "I always keep a recording of my calls, in case I need them later on. I've always loved coding stuff, and I thought a call tracer would be -"

"Who cares?" the chief interrupted, just as he so often did. He pushed the button that played back the audio. As soon as the conversation started, the chief's eyes turned from skeptical to amazed.

"That _is_ Wolford," he said. He kept listening, clearly captivated by the call.

'' _-taken hostage by Bellwether. There a bunch of us, and everyone else is from different areas outside of Zootopia. These bastards are probably trying to keep a low profile by snatching a couple of animals from each part of the world."_

" _Hold on, Wolford. Where are you?"_

" _I...don't know. All I remember is the crash, and then suddenly I'm buck-ass naked being injected with some kind of enhanced night howler. It's pure luck that I was able to create a phone-like device to contact someone on the force. I have limited time here, so don't ask any questions. All I know is that I'm somewhere in the Rainforest District. I don't know where McHorn is. He might be in this place, he might not, but I pray that he isn't. This is hell on earth. I can't keep it together. I can feel this - this bloodlust building up in my head. It's messing with my psychology, rewriting my brain. I'm reverting back to my predatory instincts. Every animal I see is potential prey. Please...get me the hell out of here. I have a kid, a son. I don't want him to lose his father. Whatever you have to do, do it. Just get me and the rest of us out of here. No animal should have to go through this. Ever."_

" _Okay, Wolford. I'll let the chief know what's going on. Just hold out until we get there, Wolford. I haven't given up on you, and it'd be pretty inconsiderate of you if you died before I got there."_

" _Will do. Now to destroy this thing before they -_ _I've got to go, Wilde."_

The chief now, oddly enough, looked unaffected by the news. Hadn't he just been hanging on every word? "So you ended up getting a call from an officer who's being tortured. I'll say this: you were right for once. We _do_ have to do something." He put his glasses on and looked at the file Judy had put on his desk. "Well, I guess the bootleg-DVD case will have to be passed on."

"Wait," Nick said. "Bootleg DVDs?"

The chief gave him a dry stare. "Yes, Wilde, the bootleg-DVD case. Weaselton has evaded us yet again."

"Yeah, I thought we had put him behind bars too, Nick," Judy said. "I could have sworn I saw him walking towards the prison with his paws behind his back. But somehow he made it out. He gave one of his escorts the slip and escaped the prison."

"We've got an APB out on him, but no success so far,' the chief said, waving a dismissive hoof. "Whatever. I'll put two other officers on it. _You_ two, in the meantime...Well, I assume you want to see this through. _But_..." he added, "there are officers much more qualified for a search and rescue than you two. So -"

"With respect, Chief," Judy started; she knew it was a very bad idea to interrupt the buffalo while he was talking, but it was very important that she continue. "We have the most experience and connections in this case. I think it would be not only in the best interests of Nick and I to keep us on for this one, but also in the best interests of Wolford and McHorn."

Bogo snorted. "Well, it's not like we can just _ask_ them, is it?"

"Chief, if I may," Nick said.

"You may," said the chief with gritted teeth.

"I'd like to point out that Wolford contacted _me_ for his 'one time only phone-a-friend.' That being said, the faces he probably wants to see the most right now are his wife's, his kid's, Judy's, and mine. So...I agree with Officer Hopps on this one."

Chief Bogo chuckled derisively. "What else is new?" He drew a long, drawn-out, dramatic sigh. "Fine. Fine. Seventy-two hours. You have seventy-two hours to find Wolford and McHorn. After that, I'm ordering a full ZPD-and-FDA-conducted joint sweep of each Zootopia district."

"Fair enough, sir," Nick concluded the debate. "Now, Officer Hopps, would you be so kind as to accompany me on the way out?"

Judy giggled; Nick was definitely good at being charming. "Actually, Officer Wilde, I need to speak with the chief about another matter."

"Uh, God," the chief said, disgusted. "Get a room, Officers."

"Only if you're buying me dinner, Chief," Nick said, clearly trying to irritate his superior.

"How about I buy flowers for your grave?" the chief said as Nick opened the door and walked through.

"Okay, okay, I'll shut up!" Nick cried out, barely making it out of the door before it slammed behind him.

Judy wasted no time. "Chief, those two animals that washed up -"

The chief held up a hoof. "I know what you're going to say, Hopps," he sighed. "We've got Invertebrate Affairs working on it. So far, there haven't been any discernible leaks or moles - metaphorical moles, that is - in the FDA. You can rest easy on this one, Hopps."

Judy was perplexed; the chief normally wasn't this explanatory. "But, Chief, there _has_ to be a reason why they were wearing FURRIEs."

The chief gave her a look that was halfway between exhaustion and annoyance. "And I'm sure there is, Hopps. But right _now_ , your objective is to find out what happened to the _real_ Wolford and McHorn, _not_ their bloody doppelgangers." He went back to reading his newspaper. "Seventy-two hours, Officer."

Judy saluted him. "I'll get right on it, Chief." She hopped up, grabbed the door handle, opened it, and walked through to the ZPD's reception, where Nick was right there waiting for her.

"So what was so important that you had to ask the Chief privately?" he asked her.

"Oh, it's nothing," she shrugged it off. "Really. I just asked him about the FURRIEs, and he said they're working on finding any double agents in the FDA."

Nick gave a "Hmph" of amusement. "Sounds very informative."

"Wow, you guys, you look like you've seen a ghost!" Clawhauser's voice snuck up behind Judy and startled her as it presented itself.

"Well, the chief _did_ just put us on a three-day time limit to find Wolford and McHorn _and_ give us death threats," she explained to the corpulent mammal as he approached them.

Clawhauser's face fell. "Oh. So it was like seeing _ten_ ghosts, then."

"Well, no time to waste," Nick's voice came from behind Judy. "We've got to find those two before something much worse happens to them."

"Wolford said the Rainforest District, right?" Judy confirmed. "So let's start there."

"Well, yeah, but where do we start?" Nick asked her.

She gave him a mock-pouting face, sticking out her lower lip, folding her ears back, and looking at him with big, sad eyes. "Awwww, did your big ol' fox brain get tricked?"

Nick looked at her, clearly unamused. "All right, baby bunny," he said. "If you're so smart, _you_ tell me where we should start looking."

Judy was taken by surprise; she, also, had no idea where to begin. "Uhhh…"

Clawhauser cleared his throat. "Umm, if I may, you guys…" His sentence trailed off awkwardly.

Judy and Nick stared at Clawhauser in unison. "Sure, Ben, what were you going to say?" Nick inquired of the cheetah.

"Well, uhh...That - that panther - the Renato Manchas dude - he was one of the chauffeurs for Mr. Big's mafia, right?" Ben gave a tiny shrug. "Maybe he was...I mean, it's a long shot, but...Maybe he knows something about it."

Nick snapped his fingers and pointed at Clawhauser. "That's a great idea. Way to go, Ben. We'll stop and buy you some doughnuts on the way back from Manchas's home as a thank-you gift."

Clawhauser's face lit up in excitement. "That's really nice of you guys! Thanks a lot!"

Judy waved a paw; it felt good to do something nice for the predator. "Don't mention it, Ben," she said. "It's the least we can do."

Nick started patting his butt with his free hand. "Oh, no, are you kidding me? I forgot my wallet."

Judy sighed and rolled her eyes; it was Jumbeaux's all over again. It was like a secret code for them now. She pulled out her own wallet. "Well, I didn't forget _mine_. I'll pick up the tab, Nick."

Nick smooched her on the cheek. "Thanks, love," he told her. Judy hoped her fur was doing a good job of covering up the fact that she was blushing. She saw that Clawhauser understood that he should probably leave the conversation and get back to whatever he had been doing previously. "Okay, then, I'll leave you to it!" he said enthusiastically, meandering off to his desk. "Call in for backup if you have to!"

Judy started to keep him from saying it, but the damage was done. She looked around slowly, fearfully, to check if the Chief had heard him. To her relief, the big boss was nowhere to be found, and she exhaled heavily, glad that they hadn't been caught.

"You know," Nick began, "Ben's a great guy, but...thinking back on it, he's probably not the best animal to tell a secret to."

Judy nodded. "Yeah. Got that." She started to regain her moxie. "Shall we, then?"

Nick smirked cockily. "I thought you'd never ask."

And with that, they made their way back through the double doors of the towering building known as the ZPD, off to find two comrades who desperately needed their help. Judy felt an overwhelming sense of nostalgia. After all, hadn't it just been three months since she started her first day on the job, as a cop meter maid? Didn't she meet Nick that afternoon, with Finnick in his adorable little elephant costume? And then Nick had started to insult her, and her spirits sank when he walked away, and then they sank some more when her microwave dinner turned out to be less than mediocre, and the radio was nothing but a deluge of depressing music, and her parents unknowingly made her feel that much more unhappy, and -

"Hey, Carrots, are you all right?"

Nick's gentle, concerned voice stirred her from her muse. She shrugged him off.

"Yeah," she mumbled halfheartedly as they exited the doors to the ZPD. "Yeah, I'm fine."

Nick seemed to know something was up, because he kept his muzzle buttoned for the rest of the way to the car. Judy was overwhelmed. Sadness, fear, motivation, uncertainty; these emotions clawed at her mind, desperately trying to grasp her attention, all of them saying, "Here I am! I'm the most important thing you need right now!" Judy slowly placed herself in the driver's seat and closed her door. The second she knew that the conversation was private, she looked at Nick, fighting back tears.

"Look, Nick," she said shakily. "I just...I don't know what to do about all of this." She took a deep breath, paused, and continued. "So much has happened so fast. First the night howlers a couple of months ago, and Bellwether breaking out, and now this? How are we supposed to keep up with it?"

For the longest moments, she looked at him, hoping for a reply. Finally, he took his arm, placed it around her body, and hugged her firmly, nuzzling her as he did so.

"Honey," he said. "I'll always be here, and as long as I have a say in it, nothing will harm you. Ever. Whatever the job throws at us, whatever _life_ throws at us, we'll take it all in stride. I'll make sure of it." He let her go and gestured to the steering wheel. "Now let's go see the black panther." He gave a light snort. "There's a joke there, but I'm not sure what it is."

Judy rolled her eyes and turned the engine over. "Neither do I, Nick. Neither do I."


	11. Black Panthers and Blue Foxes

Judy knocked on Mr. Manchas's door. She remembered their first encounter with him. How could she forget the animal that tried to kill Nick, the one she had cuffed to a streetlamp? She looked over at Nick, whose normally cocky personality had suddenly become much more timid.

"You okay, Nick?" she asked him.

He gulped and looked at the door in apprehension, even leaving his precious bag open to thievery. "Mhmm," he whined. "I just...don't really like talking to animals that have almost turned me into a corpse."

"Look, Manchas is a good guy," Judy reassured him. "Need I remind you that he was willing to cooperate with us before Doug shot him in the back of the head with a round of night howler?"

The door opened a crack, and Manchas's good eye peered out at them. "What do you want?" his voice asked. Then he realized it who it was. "Oh. You two." The door closed, the sound of a chain lock rattling ensued, and the door was opened. Manchas stood in a white tank top and military cargo shorts.

"Come in, Officers," his hushed voice invited them in.

"Thank you, Mr. Manchas," Judy said. She started for the building and, upon entering the room, turned around to talk to Manchas; Manchas, however, was staring at Nick oddly, looking at the petrified fox in curiosity.

" _Que tiene,_ Officer?" he asked the fox. Judy wasn't quite sure what had him by the tail. "Nick, what's going on?" she reinforced Manchas's question.

Nick whimpered weakly in response.

Judy sighed and turned to Manchas. "I apologize for my partner's...inconsiderate behavior," she said, giving Nick a look of irritation. "He's a bit apprehensive because of what happened the last time we were here."

Manchas's face showed that he clearly understood. "Believe me, if I were in your position, Officer, I'd feel the same way." He ushered Nick through the door; Judy saw the latter put up a bit of resistance by pushing against the panther's paw, which had been placed on his back. When he actually made it inside Manchas's home, he seemed to relax.

"So, Mr. Manchas," he started a bit awkwardly. "Here we are again."

The panther chuckled appreciatively. "And this time, I promise to keep myself from attacking you _como un monstruo savaje._ "

Nick was confused. "From attacking me...what?"

"'Like a savage monster,' he said," Judy translated; she had taken Spanish in high school, and while she was a bit rusty around the edges, she could still understand most of what came up in normal dialogue. "He's talking about the night howler, obviously."

"Well, hopefully we'll be out of your fur soon, Mr. Manchas," Nick said with an "in-any-case" attitude. "We just have a few questions for you regarding Mr. Big's operations."

The panther's face fell. "Well, I haven't any new information. There was an attack on the compound. Big is nowhere to be found; he's been missing for a few days. And on top of that…" He shuddered. "I've turned my back on crime."

"Well, that's great news, Mr. Manchas," Judy congratulated him. She didn't want to be insensitive and tell him that chauffeuring a crime boss wasn't a crime in and of itself, so she kept her mouth shut.

He cracked a small smile, but it faded away quickly. "Yes, it is, isn't it? But…" He sighed and pointed to his face. "This whole...one-eyed predator thing has made multiple employers turn me away."

Judy cast a nervous glance at Nick, who now seemed indignant. "Typical," he spat, his claws digging into the strap on his bag. "Just typical." Nick looked at Manchas. "Join the force. Show the world that predators can be trusted."

Manchas held up a yellow piece of paper; Judy recognized it; it was an application for employment at the ZPD. "I just grabbed this application paper a couple of hours ago," he explained. "I'm submitting it first thing tomorrow morning, but I'm afraid they'll reject me due to the lack of vision I have in this eye." He pointed to the mangled organ.

Judy said, "I'll put in a good word for you," involuntarily synchronizing her words with Nick's. She traded a look of amazement with him. Did they just say the same thing at the same time? Wow. Coincidence.

"Thanks, Officers," Manchas said, still seeming a bit sad. "It's nice to know that the police are on my side now."

"Absolutely, Mr. Manchas," Judy replied. Now to get him back on topic. "So you say Mr. Big's been missing since the attack on his home?"

"Yes, that is correct," said Manchas. " _Escuchen_ , would you like something to drink?"

"Oh, no thank you, sir," Judy said; she wasn't particularly thirsty. Nick, however, said, "I'll have a glass of water, if you'd be so kind."

"Absolutely, _zorro de azul_." Manchas opened a cabinet, took a glass down from its shelf, and grabbed a pitcher of water, pouring Nick his refreshment. Nick accepted the beverage with a courteous "Thank you very much."

" _De nada,_ Officer."

Manchas sat down on his couch. "The attack on Big's home took place three days ago. The attackers, probably _un par de_ rival gang members, infiltrated the residence disguised as polar bears, knocked most of the guards unconscious, and blew up Big's entire fleet of vehicles...which is another reason why I'm looking for other employment. _Mira_ , all I know is that since Big's disappearance, his empire has fallen into disarray. There are a few who keep trying to claim leadership, but they usually start trying to kill each other before they can reach an agreement. There _does_ seem to be a bit of support for one of them." His features darkened even more, an impressive feat for a panther with black fur in a dimly lit room.

Judy was afraid to ask, but she asked anyway. "Who is it?"

Manchas gave her the same intense stare that he had given her when he had first showed her the scar Mr. Otterton had given him. "That _puta_ who was behind the night howler conspiracy, Dawn Bellwether?"

Judy gasped. "No, not her. Please say it's not her."

Manchas chuckled bitterly. "I only _wish_ she was at the front of the pack. No, the emerging leader is _much_ worse." He lowered his voice. "This psycho poses as one of the good guys, but in reality he's pure evil. And he's _muy bueno_ at faking things."

Faking things. Without even knowing what she was doing, Judy snapped her gaze to Nick. He saw her and gave her a look of disappointment.

"Really?" he asked her angrily. "I fit _one_ parameter of this guy and you start looking at me?"

"I'm sorry, Nick," she said, realizing her mistake. "I didn't mean it that way."

"Of course you didn't," he sipped his water, justified in being pissed off. Judy knew she had been wrong in suspecting him. He was turning his life around! Why would he suddenly want to start controlling the criminal underworld? But then something he had said began to chew at her.

 _"You're slipping back into hustles?"_

 _"Oh, no, nothing like that. I just…"_

Oh, the conflicting emotions, and the hesitancy and the uncertainty and the doubtfulness! What was real and what was not? Couldn't Nick just tell her the truth? Why did she have to think so hard about everything? Wasn't it just better to be ignorant, to assume that Nick had turned his back on the lies and the crime for good? Yes. Yes, that was what she would do. For a fox, he was one of the most trustworthy creatures on the planet, and if she didn't feel like she could have faith in him, then her feelings for him were deceiving her. And if she knew one thing for sure, it was that whenever she felt for an animal, they were one hundred percent deserving of it.

"What questions did you have to ask me, Officers?" Manchas derailed her train of thought.

"Well, there _is_ one little thing," she said. "We have reason to believe that either Mr. Big or Ms. Bellwether have been taking animals hostage and subjecting them to an advanced form of the night howler serum. Would you happen to have any idea where that might be?"

Manchas scrunched his eyebrows together, thinking. "No, no, I don't think I do," he said finally, nodding his head and looking her in the eyes as he did so. "I mean, I was just a driver." He laughed. "

"Mr. Manchas," Nick burst out suddenly, "I would advise you to tell the truth. Otherwise, Officer Hopps and I are required to arrest you for obstruction of justice, and that really wouldn't do you much good, now, would it?"

Manchas scoffed, but Judy detected traces of uncertainty in his voice. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

Nick gave a chuckle. "You've just exhibited two telltale signs of lying, Mr. Manchas: Verbal-nonverbal disconnect and behavioral pause. Now, I might just be hyper observant, but -" He pointed a finger at Manchas loosely, as if he was indicating that Manchas had answered a trivia question correctly. "- that whole 'I don't know' deal won't fly."

As Judy thought about it, she realized that Nick had a point. And Manchas looked much more uncomfortable now. "Mr. Manchas…" she said hesitantly. "If you're clean, then we don't have a problem. If not, Nick's right, we _will_ have to arrest you for not truthfully answering the question."

Manchas gave a gesture of surrender. "Okay, okay! It's that _puta_ , Bellwether! Big had nothing to do with it!"

Now that was exactly what Judy didn't want to hear. It sounded like Manchas knew more than the mere "Bellwether did it" line he had just delivered. "Can you tell us anything else, other than that Bellwether is the sole culprit?" she asked him, trying to keep a calm, cool appearance.

Manchas cradled his head in his hands and rocked back and forth in his seat. " _Ay, no, no, por favor…"_ He started wailing. _¡No me hagas recordar!_ "

"What did he say?" Nick asked over Manchas's commotion.

"He doesn't want us to make him remember!" Judy called out before focusing on Manchas, who was breathing rather shakily. "Mr. Manchas, this can stop if you just tell us what you don't want to remember. And then it's all over. You can forget it as soon as you let us know what it is!"

"Fine! Fine! _¡Carajo!_ " Manchas seemed to grab a hold of himself. "It's me! They used my home for the entrance to that _infierno_!"

Judy stopped everything: her thoughts, her predictions, her emotions. All was replaced by the disbelief that she heard the panther correctly.

"I'm sorry," she said. "Did you just say-?"

"Agh!" Manchas threw his paws up. "¡ _Si_ , _fuera yo!_ Bellwether assumed that no one would think to check the chauffeur's home for any suspicious things! That's why she built a passageway to her laboratory underneath my house. When you two first came to me and asked about that otter, someone was using the tunnel, that was why I only partially opened my door."

"Where's the secret passageway?" Nick asked, a bit forcefully.

Manchas nodded to a rug. " _Alla._ That's the entrance. But I strongly advise _que tengas mucho cuidado._ I've been down there _dos tiempos_ , and I've already started to lose my mind."

Nick got down on all fours and threw the rug to the side, revealing a door. But for some reason, he launched himself into the air with a force rivaling that of a pogo stick as he did so and yelled, "Yaaaah!" He landed in a defensive position, ears back, teeth bared, and eyes narrowed. This state of being lasted only a second, however; he quickly corrected himself and seemed to calm down.

"You mind telling us what that was about?" Judy asked him.

He looked at her as if she was insane. "Have you already forgotten what happened the _last_ time someone revealed a hidden entrance under a rug with us in the room?"

Judy understood. "Yes. Yes, I do."

"So you can understand why I'm a bit jumpy when I have a flashback to that little incident." Nick shook himself, presumably steeling his nerves for whatever lay beneath their feet, and opened the trapdoor. His eyes widened. "Wow," he said. "That's actually pretty impressive."

Judy had to know. "What is it, Nick?" she asked him.

"It looks like a medieval dungeon down here," he replied. He had piqued Judy's curiosity; she looked down into whatever was in store for her. Nick was right. It _did_ look like a dungeon. Torches lined walls made of gigantic stones that had been covered in moss and vines. The ground was coated with dust and showed signs of perilous footing, looking in some spots as if it would cave in under even the lightest footstep. Multitudinous engravings were carved into the stones, each one depicting something different: a gruesome death, a bloody war, a mortal animal receiving a blessing from the gods. It was like an adventure film had made its way to Manchas's sub-basement.

"Wow," she said breathlessly. She was awed by the craftsmanship. How such an ancient-seeming construct could have survived this long was beyond her comprehension. And then the reality settled in. This wasn't some tourist trap to be preserved. This was a torture chamber. Innocent civilians were slowly, painfully being killed and driven insane by Bellwether and her cruel regime. The wonder of such an architectural achievement was now, in her eyes, stained with the blood of so many who had been subjected to excruciating pain for nothing but revenge. Judy was determined, determined to make Bellwether pay. She gave Nick and intense stare.

"Come on, Nick," she ordered. "We're going down there."

Nick seemed a bit cautious. "I don't think this is a good idea, Carrots. I mean, if she gets the drop on us again, I can't do anything to stop it. You heard the doctor."

Judy didn't care; if she died, she was only trying to save Wolford and McHorn, and that was an honorable end. "I outrank you, Sergeant," she said authoritatively. "We're going down there."

"But, Carrots-"

"That's an order, Sergeant. Now, cover my six." She focused her attention on Manchas. "Mr. Manchas, we need you to go to the ZPD and tell them everything you told us. And I mean _everything_. Including your connections with Big and Bellwether."

Manchas also looked hesitant. "But, _Senorita_ Hopps, they'll arrest-" He stopped himself, and Judy thought she saw him realizing the bigger predicament.

"Officer Wilde and I will _personally_ vouch for you, sir, but you have to go to the ZPD _right now_. Tell them we need backup right now."

Manchus whipped out his smartphone. "Can't I just call them on the telephone?"

"They won't believe you if you don't-"

"Mr. Manchas," Nick interrupted her, "call them, tell the officer that Nick and Judy found the lab, and give them your address. And _don't_ let him hang up until he says reinforcements are on the way."

Judy was indignant; who was Nick to question her authority, to cut her off in the middle of a sentence?

" _Si, senor_ ," said Manchas, dialing the ZPD's number.

"Now that we've gotten _that_ squared away -" Judy gave Nick a dirty look. "Let's go help some animals." She threw her legs over the edge of the entrance and began to lower herself into the catacomb. Her paw slipped. She felt that falling sensation she had experienced so many other times. She hit the ground. _Wham_! Pain pierced her elbow. Tingling flowed through it like water. She winced, sucking in air through her teeth as she cradled her right arm. She looked up and saw Nick looking at her down his muzzle.

"You okay, Carrots?"

She tried moving her arm in multiple directions. Everything seemed responsive. "Yeah," she said. "I think I just hit my funny bone."

Nick gave a sympathy grunt. "Ouch," he concurred. "Let me help." With a small leap, Nick grabbed some of the vegetation on the far wall, stuck for only a moment, then jumped to the other wall, yet again securing his landing with the green tangle of vines. He let go and dropped all of three feet, landing on both feet and a paw placed dramatically on the ground before standing erect and dusting his paw pads off. Once he finished, he extended his right paw to Judy. Then he switched paws abruptly.

Judy took his left paw with her own and straightened her legs, pushing against the ground as Nick pulled her from it.

"Thank you, Sergeant," she said.

He cocked his head in a way that asked "Really?" "Do we _have_ to use ranks, Carrots?"

Judy sighed. "Look, Nick, I'm either calling you 'Officer' or 'Sergeant.' If they hear me talking, at least they won't know your identity."

Nick shrugged. "Whatever, Lieutenant."

Judy looked down the long, dimly-lit passage in front of them. They had quite a while until they would encounter the animals. She could hear Manchas talking to Clawhauser. Time to save some lives, she thought.

She led Nick, taking the first step towards the mass dungeons that lay ahead of her. She tread carefully, making sure that not even the smallest of noises could be heard as she advanced.

"Hey, Carrots," Nick whispered.

Judy looked back at him, using her facial expressions in an attempt to tell him to stop talking. "What?" she asked.

He understood. "Nothing. Just...nothing!" he whispered back hastily.

Judy refocused on the path ahead of her. There, up ahead! There was a face carved into the wall! But what did it mean? Judy sped up slightly, anticipating what it could possibly mean. Closer and closer it came, growing from the size of a toaster to the size of a desk, and still getting large and larger until finally, she was right in front of it. She checked her environment for anything resembling a path. Nothing but the walls were visible. A dead end. Well, perhaps an entrance, but nevertheless, Judy somehow got the feeling that they would not gain passage to whatever lay behind it. But then she heard Nick's sniffer going crazy, and she looked back at him.

Nick's tail fur was on end, and his eyes were full of fear. The frown of terror had plastered itself on his muzzle once again, and he gave Judy a look of intense foreboding.

"C-Carrots," he spoke in a deathly-quiet hush, shaking. "I smell animals. And blood. Lots of blood."

Judy pointed to the face on the wall. "Behind that?" she asked him.

"No," he replied. His finger pointed to the ground. And Judy understood. Fear now pulsed through her own veins. They were right on top of the lab; hundreds of suffering beings were under her feet. She met Nick's eyes. "How do we get down there?"

Nick pointed to the stone wall in front of them. "I think that's the way to the main…" He looked like he was fumbling for the words. "Room...structure...thingy," he finally whispered.

Judy rolled her eyes in disbelief. "Room structure thingy? Really?"

He shrugged. "I don't know!" he hissed. "It's kind of hard to think when you realize that you're standing right above a bunch of dying animals!"

"That doesn't matter, Nick," Judy said, pointing her finger at the face in the wall. "How do we get past that thing?"

He studied it for a few seconds, sniffing it and looking around it, before he finally stopped and said, "I have no idea."

Judy groaned in exasperation. "How hard can it be?!" She looked to the torch to the wall's immediate left. Suddenly an idea popped into her head. Of course! How obvious!

"You figure it out, Carrots?" Nick asked her; she must have been wearing her self-admiration on her face. She looked at him smugly.

"Wouldn't _you_ like to know?" she asked him maddeningly.

He gave her a no-nonsense look. "Carrots, just tell me."

She gestured to the torch with her paw. "Come on, Nick. It's too obvious to _no_ t be the solution." WIth that, she used her remarkably springy legs to leap up and grab at the torch. But she missed. Now she was falling back down in an arc on a crash course with the wall, and there was no stopping herself. She threw her elbows in front of her face, grabbing the back of her head with her paws to shield her head from impact. But to her surprise, as she hit the wall, it shimmered and jerked and shuddered. She landed in the middle of what should have been a pile of bricks, but instead, it was merely the same floor she had just jumped from. She felt embarrassed; not only had she been wrong about how to get past the door, but she had taken a huge pratfall right in front of her boyfriend. She got up, brushed herself off, and turned to look at Nick through the veil of a holographic projection.

"So, did it work?" she asked him.

The fox seemed mesmerized.

"Well…" he said, letting the sentence trail off. "Yeah, I guess it did."

"Good. Now get over here."

Nick took a few cautious steps through the fake wall, and, when he found that it wasn't as bad as Judy thought it would be, relaxed and began to walk normally again. "Huh. That wasn't so bad, was it? So...what's on the other side of this thing, exactly?" he asked, passing through the other side of the faux wall.

"Wait," Judy started, but it was too late. She gave a sigh. "Hold on, Nick!" She jogged past the other end of the projection to find…

"Holding cells," Nick said grimly, looking at the long line of prison rooms nervously. "Like the ones at the Cliffside Asylum, only...more ancient and creepy-looking."

Judy shuddered; the stones, vines and rusted gates made her uneasy. How had none of the subject broken free? "No kidding," she agreed. "Wait…Didn't you say they were beneath us?"

Nick gave her a stare of fear. "Yeah...I did." He cast his glance of fear and anticipation about the room once more. "God, what's happening?"

As Judy progressed through the chamber, she discovered that her original theory of animals being able to break free easily was quickly proven wrong; while the cells themselves were weak, the animals within were even weaker. Judy gasped, audibly, as the horrors hidden within this underground hell met her eyes. Whatever happened down here was the work of the devil.

Blood was abundant in every cell; some even contained the bones and skeletons of deceased organisms. Each cell held some type of animal, each stripped down to nudity. Neither predator nor prey had been safe from the clutches of this dungeon. Every species, every subspecies that could fit in a cell had been thrown in with no mercy. Chains bound each limb to the walls, trapping any victims. The victims themselves were no less than pitiful. Their faces were gaunt and pale, and those who were conscious had bloodshot, tear-filled eyes. Each mouth was a frown, a wince, a cry of agony frozen upon the owner's face. Each test subject had been deprived of enough food to lose most of their muscle mass; rib cages were visible underneath the paper-thin layers of flesh. Fur was matted, unkempt, dirty with soot and blood, falling off on its own. Predators had muzzles on, and the prey had had their mouths covered by duct tape. As Judy met the eyes of the captives who were awake, they locked on to her. Every pair of tortured eyes begged her, pleaded with her. _Help me,_ they whispered. _Please. Help me._

Judy turned to her right, addressing Nick. "Hey, Nick," she whispered. "We should start freeing -"

But Nick wasn't paying attention. He had gotten unusually close to one of the cells on the right side of the hall. He moved his mouth, but no noise came from his throat. He looked like he was on the verge of crying.

"Nick, what is it?" Judy asked him softly.

Nick put his snout in his forearm and sniffed; a tear dropped from his wide, scared eyes and rolled off his cheek. Finally, he spoke, his voice broken and watery.

"D...D-Dad?"

It was barely a whisper; but Judy heard it. She jogged over to him with purpose. "What is it, Nick?" She looked at the captive, and covered her mouth with her paw.

He was a fox; an older-looking fox, but a fox nonetheless. And he bore a strong resemblance to Nick. The same complexion, the same narrow snout. There was no doubt in Judy's mind that this was her lover's father. Judy glanced at Nick, who was now fully crying. "Dad?" he asked again.

The fox's ears perked up, and his eyes slowly fluttered open. He even had Nick's eyes. Judy heard Nick cease his attempts at holding his tears back; he sobbed quietly. She stared into the fox's eyes, which were filled with defeat and hopelessness. From the corner of her eyes, she saw Nick grab the bars with both paws.

"Dad," he sobbed. "I'm going to get you out of here. You and everyone else."

A muffled _Hmmph!_ came from somewhere further down the line of cells; clearly an inmate was trying to get their attention. Judy put her hand on Nick's shoulder.

"I'm going to check that out," she said.

Nick nodded silently, still sobbing and staring at his father. Judy patted him a couple of times before speed-walking along the unexplored cells, looking for who might have called her there.

 _Hmmph!_

There it was again! Two cells to the left! Judy leaped to the cell in a single, effortless bound. It was Wolford! He looked worse off than the others; he had been chained to the wall not only by his arms and legs, but by his throat as well. His muzzle was broken in several places, but it still held his mouth shut. His eyes opened wide when he saw Judy.

 _Hmmph!_ he exclaimed again.

"Yeah, it's me, Wolford!" Judy said, identifying herself. "We're here to get you out. Do you know where I can do that?"

Wolford shrugged his shoulders. But then his eyebrows furrowed. He hesitantly pointed a finger to his right.

"What, is there a button over there that could help us out?"

Another shrug.

Judy sighed. "Fine. Well, at least it's worth a try." She looked down at the end of the room. A lonely, hollowed-out dirt wall lowered the overall ambience. But what was that on the side of it? Whatever it was, it must be important. Judy hurried to it. As she got closer, she saw that it was not one mere button, but dozens of buttons. So...what did they do, exactly? Judy bit her thumbnail. That one. She pushed one of the buttons on a whim. For a minute, nothing happened. Then...

CLANK!

Judy jumped at the sound of metal moving behind her. She spun around and was met with the sight of a cell opening, an animal being set free. She dashed to the opening gate and found a lion still in chains. Without hesitation, she knelt down and began to help him escape his bonds. But for every cuff, there was a keyhole. Judy could do nothing to save him without a key. She called to Nick. "Hey!" she hissed.

He looked at her with tears still in his eyes. "What?" he whispered back.

"They can't go free unless we find the keys that unlock the cuffs," she said. "Help me find them."

Nick gave a few mournful glances around the room before walking, slowly but surely, over to the button center she had just come from...and Judy couldn't help but feel annoyed. Hadn't they _just_ figured out what those buttons did?

"Nick!" she said, not bothering to keep her voice quiet. "What are you doing?"

Nick stood there, his back turned to her. For the longest of times, it looked as if he had suddenly frozen. Then, in a flurry of pointed index fingers, he started pushing each and every button he could see. The steel bars lifted from the cells at random intervals, causing a very large ruckus. Judy was now considerably afraid; wouldn't someone hear the thunderous noise of metal scraping against stone?

"Nick!" she yelled over the tempest of screeching. "What are you doing?"

He met her eyes, but he was no longer feeling sorrowful. A different kind of fire burned in him, one of rage and vengeance. His pain looked as if it been replaced with fury, and his body language was more than hostile; it was loathing, seething at Bellwether and whoever else was behind this appalling operation.

"If we want the keys, we have to subdue the guard. And if we can't find the guard, then we just have to make the guard find us."

No sooner had he said it than the wall behind him began to rumble. Judy's instincts took over; she drew her pistol from her utility belt, took cover, and shouted, "Nick, get back!"

But Nick did nothing of the sort. He stood defiantly in front of the moving wall, clearly steeling his nerves for whatever lay behind the stone structure.

" _Come on_!" he yelled. "Fight me, you _bastards_!"

And as the chamber slid wide open, Judy was surprised to see three rams...the same ones they had encountered at the first night howler lab. But something was clearly wrong with them. They looked much more agitated and evil; their smiles were more than mischievous.

"Hey, it's the fox!" one of them said. "And he's got a purse! Did you miss us, huh?"

Judy heard Nick growling; his ears were laid back, and his claws were bared. He tossed the bag aside. "You three better get ready for a lot more than a close shave," he threatened.

Another ram laughed. "You wish, fox," he said. His hoof rummaged around in his pocket, but only for a second. As it emerged from his pants, Judy saw a glint of blue. Night howler. SHe had seen enough. Stepping out into the open, she pointed her gun at the four animals.

"I've heard enough, you three," she said to the rams. "You're under arrest."

"Ah, you see," said the night-howler ram, "I don't think so." He waggled a vial of the liquid at her. Nick hissed, laying his ears even flatter.

"You see this, baby bunny? This is an ingestible version of the night howler serum," he explained. "But this…" He gave a cruel chuckle. "This is version two-point-oh." With one swig, he swallowed the entire vial in one gulp. Almost immediately, he began to transform. His muscles began to swell to twice their normal size. His eyes got progressively redder and redder, and as he bleated in pain, his voice got deeper and deeper until it finally stopped, sounding as if the devil himself had taken an earthly form.

Judy gave no hesitation; she emptied her magazine into his flesh. He staggered as they hit him, sending blood flying everywhere. As the last lethal metal bullet pierced his skin, he fell over. Judy reloaded and pointed it at him; she would take no chances if he could spring back up at any moment. But that, oddly enough, wasn't the case. He lay there, unmoving, most likely dead. His two accomplices looked at her angrily.

"Oh, you've got it coming now, rabbit," the first ram said. He looked at his buddy and motioned to Nick. "Give him a little surprise."

The other one nodded, and he too reached for something in his pocket. But this wasn't night howler serum. This was a light red fox taser, just like the one Judy's father had tried to give her the first time she left for Zootopia. For the slightest of moments, Nick actually looked intimidated from behind, but soon it went away as he apparently began carrying out his own mantra.

"Let's have at it, then," he said. In a flurry of movement that Judy could barely make out, Nick dodged to the right, spun in a tight circle to avoid the ram's first attempt to incapacitate him, and brought his elbow down on his opponent's spine. The ram barely had time to cry out in pain, though, because Nick followed up his first blow with a roundhouse kick to the exact same spot he had slammed with his elbow. His opponent fell to the ground, losing his grip on the fox taser and causing it to fly out of his hands and slide a few feet from his body. As he groaned in pain, Judy took the opportunity to help Nick; she dove for the weapon, grabbed it, and started it again. This time, however, she pointed it at the last ram standing.

"Which one of them has the key?"

He spat at her feet. "Like I'd _willingly_ help the pigs!"

Judy felt Nick's hand removing her pistol from the holster on her hip.

"The key," he said. "Where is it?"

"I'd sooner die than tell you two!"

Judy shoved the taser at him threateningly, but Nick, much to her surprise, merely chuckled. "Well, that's rather dramatic, don't you think? See, I don't think you fully understand the situation here. All you have to do is tell us which one of you three has the key. We walk away, you walk away...maybe. Depends on if you're honest the first time."

"What if I refuse?" the ram sneered.

Judy glanced at Nick, who nodded his head contemplatively and warped his mouth into a pondering frown. "You _could_ do that. You'd end up with a pair of broken legs, alone in a room with a bunch of animals you've been torturing, _or_ -"

"Where would you get the key if I didn't tell you?" he laughed. "Idiot fox."

"See," Nick explained, "by _that_ point we'll have given up on getting a straight answer out of you and we'll just search you and your friends' bodies until we find the key." He stepped to Judy side and brought his claws up to eye level in an attempt to intimidate his foe.

The ram looked afraid, but in spite of the two animals promising him pain, he kept playing the tough-guy card. "Try it. I'm not scared of you."

"Well, now," Nick said, moving his claws ever closer to the ram's face. " _That_ 's unfortunate."

He had done it; his opponent whimpered, and almost immediately after, yelled out, "Okay! Okay! It's in his pocket!" His hoof indicated the body of the ram who ingested the serum, who, just so coincidentally, had a large number of pockets included in his clothing.

"Carrots, could you search him?" he asked Judy, his claws still dangerously close to his enemy.

Judy nodded. Truth be told, she really didn't want to touch a bloody corpse, but her desire to save Wolford took precedence. With a light amount of resentment, She rolled the body over and began to dig around in the numerous pockets of the dead ram. She felt a pack of gum, some night howler capsules...Wait! She grabbed what seemed to be a large metal circle. As she brought it out, jingling followed. Yes! The key! She whipped the circle out and found, among other things, a key that looked like it opened the prison chains. "I've got it, Nick!" she said ecstatically.

"Great," came his reply. "Start freeing these test subjects."

Judy didn't need to be told twice; her hope restored, she ran to the first cell she saw. The animal inside, a polar bear, looked at her hopefully, and as she began to undo his bonds, she saw his eyes well up in tears of gratitude. Once his muzzle was removed, he began trying to speak.

"Th...th…" He coughed.

"Ssh," Judy reassured him, putting a hand on his shoulder in a successful attempt at calming him. "It's all right now. You'll be fine."

"Carrots," Nick said, trying to catch her attention.

"Yeah?" she said, still comforting the bear.

"Cuffs, please," he said. "I'm taking this guy into custody for animal cruelty."

Judy took her cuffs from her belt and tossed them to Nick, who was holding one paw open to catch them and holding his other paw threateningly at the ram. As he caught the device, he said, "Hoofs behind your back" authoritatively, and the perpetrator did so.

Judy turned back to helping the rest of the animals: an otter, a hippopotamus, a gazelle, a hyena. What had they been doing that required such a vast diversity of animal species?

A thud. A groan of pain. Judy turned around to see Nick leaping out of the way of the ram's hoof; the latter had clearly gotten the drop on him. With his other hoof, Nick's opponent grabbed something from his own pocket. It was a remote with two small red buttons on it; nothing more could be found. He brandished it with a swagger of conceit about him.

"You're both dead now, coppers!" he laughed. "It's feeding time!"

He slammed his hoof down on one of the buttons; immediately, each and every prisoner was stabbed in the shoulder by a needle with blue liquid in it. Judy could hardly stomach this mass psychosis. Every single civilian here was going to turn into a bloodthirsty monster, and how was she going to look in the mirror if she killed these innocent animals? She whipped around to see the ram push the second button. The prisoners' muzzles popped open with a collective hiss of de-pressurized air and fell to the floor. They all began to groan and mumble, wincing and clearly in pain. But it didn't sound like they were being affected at all by the evil serum. Instead, they were trying to stand up on their own two paws, albeit with little success. Judy couldn't help but let loose a short laugh of relief; no one was going to die here!

" _What?!_ " the ram bleated in disbelief. "This can't be happening!"

"All right, Ramsey," Nick said, cracking a joke, "We can do this the easy way or the hard way."

The ram caved. "Okay, fine! Fine! I'll come quietly!" He put his hooves behind his back, and, much to Judy surprise, allowed Nick to arrest him this time.

"You have the right to remain silent," Nick started. "Anything you say can and will be held against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney…"

Judy began to check on the inmates. She helped each animal to their feet, saying "Are you okay?" and "Are you all right?" over and over, and not leaving until she got a response. She asked them for their names, then told them to sit tight and wait for backup to be dispatched. She could only hope they actually believed Manchas…

Finally, Judy had made her way to Mr. Wilde. He had gotten to his feet, but was leaning against the wall to keep from falling over. She approached him a little apprehensively; she didn't want the first thing he heard to be that his son was in love with the natural enemy of his species.

"Sir?" she asked him.

He groaned. "Yeah," he said with effort.

"I'm Officer Hopps," Judy introduced herself. "Are you all right?"

Mr. Wilde's breathing became much more labored. "I've...been in here...God knows...how long," he said. "Do...you think...I'm okay?"

"Sorry, sir," Judy apologized hastily; now that she had said it, it sounded highly insensitive. "I didn't mean to -"

Mr. Wilde waved her off with his free paw. "Nah...that's fine," he groaned. "Don't go so...hard on...yourself."

Judy glanced at Nick, catching him in the act of looking at their conversation. She gave him what she hoped was a reassuring smile. Nick returned the favor with a smile of gratitude, and she felt some kind of happiness spread throughout her body. She directed her attention to his father once again.

"Sir, do you mind telling me your name?" she asked him, hoping it didn't sound too hostile.

"Yeah, it's...Oscar...Wilde," Mr. Wilde replied.

Oscar. So _that_ was his name. "Okay, Mr. Wilde," she instructed, "if you feel like you need to sit down, please do. We have backup on the way, but it'll take some time for them to get here."

"Well... _I'm_ not…" Mr Wilde coughed. "I'm not going anywhere."

Judy nodded; what was she supposed to say? She pulled her phone out of her pocket and dialed Clawhauser's number. The ringing ensued, but only for a few seconds.

" _Judy?"_ came Ben's voice.

"Yeah, Clawhauser," Judy replied. "Did you get a phone call from Renato Manchas?"

" _Yeah! Yeah, I did!"_ His voice was almost as excited as a child's on Christmas morning. _"I told the chief, and he has reinforcements on the way!"_

Judy breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank God," she muttered. "How close are they?"

Rustling came from the other end of the line, followed by the cheetah's jaw crunching on potato chips...or so Judy guessed. _"I don't know, but they left about eight or nine minutes ago. They should be there soon."_

And sure enough, as if on cue, an animal fell through the fake wall, a snowy tiger in a uniform. He looked around in surprise and apprehensiveness.

"What the -?" he asked.

"It's a fake wall," Judy explained. "You're fine."

He scrambled to his feet and turned back, calling into the wall.

"I'm okay!" he said. "Walk through the wall!"

Judy watched it, waiting for another soul to work up the courage and pass through the seemingly impenetrable gate. After all, who in their right mind would willingly walk right into a wall? But then, to Judy's surprise, Manchas entered the room.

"Mr. Manchas?" she heard Nick ask. "What are you doing here?"

Manchas shrugged. "Well, I wanted to know that everyone here _estaba haciendo bien_."

"Everyone's fine, Mr. Manchas," Judy assured him. "We only need EMTs and then we'll be able to get this whole thing wrapped up."

The black panther shook his head. "I just wish all of this would go away _como eso_." He snapped his fingers for emphasis.

"It'll all be over soon," Judy repeated herself, trying to get him to relax. She turned to the tiger. "Where are the rest?"

But her question was soon answered; the ZPD officers practically swarmed into the room, pistols raised to combat any threat. One shouted "Clear!", signaling the others that there were no threats, and, almost as if they had rehearsed this entire event, simultaneously holstered their weapons, each immediately making their way to whoever was closest and in need of medical assistance. The conversations became multitudinous, and Judy couldn't possibly be bothered trying to keep track of even one of them. Instead, she made her own; Nick was just standing out of the way, keeping his suspect from running.

"Are we ready for the next step in the journey?" she asked. "Speaking of, what _is_ the next step in the journey?"

"You give him a tug, _that's_ the next step in the journey," the ram said, clearly trying to get on her nerves.

She opened her mouth to say "Watch it, buster!", but before she could, Nick smacked him on the back of the head.

"Ow!" the criminal cried out. "Police brutality!"

"Far from it," Nick corrected him. "It's completely legal under Section I, Paragraph D, Sentence 10, Footnote T in the Police Handbook.."

Judy was confused. She had never heard of Section I...Oh. Now she understood. "Clever fox," she said aloud.

Nick gave her a confident, mock-seductive stare. "Lovely bunny," he responded. "Now, as far as the next step goes, getting _his_ sorry tail -" He nodded to the ram "-down to the ZPD sounds just dandy."

Judy gave him a look. "Dandy? _Really?"_

Nick shrugged. "What? I didn't want to just say, 'sounds good.' That's too overused."

Judy put her hands on her hips and scoffed, smiling. "Sometimes I can't believe you."

'Yeah, well…" Nick let his sentence trail off. Then he plunged his hand into his bag without warning and pulled out a small ball-shaped container that was filled with a carbonated liquid, semi-gold in color. "You know, it's kind of sad. I was hoping to use one of these things."

"I don't follow," said Judy, wondering what the liquid could be.

With no warning, Nick threw the sphere at the wall, making Judy jump. It burst into a vibrant gold shower, raining down onto the ground. Judy turned back to Nick only to find another capsule in his paw.

"Meet the anti-night howler, Carrots," he said. "Isn't this _awesome_? The doctor said that even if the Animal had no more than touched my skin, it would work. Turns out that the taurine concentration is so high that unless you ate three blueberry pies in a row, like Gideon Grey said, the effects of night howler would recede almost immediately. So all we need to do is start mass producing a specialized gun like Bellwether's, and boom - no more problem. Of course, that's only a temporary solution," he added, putting the unbroken canister of Animal back in his bag. "Eventually, we'll need to immunize everyone...or somehow shut down all production of night howler."

Judy breathed. For the longest time, she had thought there was no way to save everyone in Zootopia from the night howler. But now, after Nick's lucky break, there was hope that maybe, just maybe, the city might survive. And as she watched the police help the ex-test subjects out of their purgatory, her spirits soared. It finally looked like the good guys were going to win...


	12. Busted in More Ways Than One

"Chief, you have to believe me!"

"Are you giving me orders, Hopps?"

Judy took a deep breath, inwardly cursing the stoic buffalo. He always refused to accept her word. Probably some kind of grudge that he still held against her from having her under his instruction. After all the work she had done, he still didn't appreciate her - anything she did, anything she said, he didn't acknowledge her existence...unless, of course, he could chew her out or criticize her. Here he was, ignoring a firsthand witness account of enhanced night howler serum! She couldn't wrap her head around how biased he was.

"Sorry, sir, but with all due respect, I know what I saw."

"And I know what _I_ see, Hopps," he said. "I see a naive officer who accidentally ingested some kind of hallucinogenic drug and thinks that she saw a Satanic goat attack her. End of story. No buts about it."

"That's not what happened at all, chief," Nick chimed in from the seat next to Judy. "The _ram_ , not the goat, took some night howler, started transforming - literally - and then Judy might have emptied an entire magazine in self-defense."

Bogo took his glasses off, rubbed his eyes as he so often did, and sighed. "Look, we know that they had an illegal experiment going on down there. Forensics has already verified that the animals that have been down there have spent anywhere from days to years down there, and some of them even had the serum tested on them _before_ it became a huge problem. What forensics _didn't_ find is proof that there was any kind of change in the serum itself!"

"But, Chief -" Nick started.

 _NO,_ Wilde!" Judy jumped and instinctively shrunk as Bogo slammed his hooves on the desk and stood erect. "You've been through an emotional roller coaster, both of you! Leave and come back when you've got your heads together!"

The door opened, and Bogo fell silent. He looked at whoever was there as if his mother had caught him smoking marijuana. Judy turned to see the newcomer. A raccoon. He was dressed in a tuxedo, sunglasses, and a black bowler hat. In his paw was a suitcase. Judy assumed she didn't want to know what it contained.

"Sir," the chief said, standing at attention.

Judy stood up and saluted him, too; it seemed the proper thing to do. "Sir." She heard Nick do the same.

"At ease, Officers," the raccoon said. "The city's beloved denizens don't pay your salary so you can look at me with your paws on your foreheads."

Judy, lowering her paw, still wasn't sure who she was paying respect to. "Sir, if you don't mind my asking, who are you?"

"Yes, yes, you're all for the introductions, you cops," he said, slamming his briefcase on Bogo's desk with considerable force for such a small animal. "Agent Brodi Noho of the Marsupial Intelligence Bureaucracy." He clicked open the case. "And I'm not here to congratulate you." He looked up above Bogo's forehead and thought about it for a second. "Actually, I _am_ here to congratulate you. Good job for saving those civvies. But that's just a side note. The reason I was sent _down_ here is because of recent events concerning a very dangerous drug that might have just become even _more_ dangerous."

He opened the case and brought out a few pictures, hidden to Judy's vision. Brodi pinned them on Bogo's portable corkboard and stepped away. Three of the hostages, including Nick's father, each had their own photo, taken in their hospital beds. And...was that Herb? The singer from Gideon's performers? He was part of this, too? Judy couldn't believe it. She felt horrible. She had only met him once, but in those few minutes, Herb had been so nice, so -

"May I present to you three of the test subjects that were used for the experimentation of an advanced night howler serum." He looked at Bogo. "Now, you may think this is all a bunch of hocus-pocus, Chief, but it's actually happening. These civvies - and I believe one of them is related to you, Officer Wilde - and others like them are ready to testify against whoever wronged them. Well -" he added. "-they'll _be_ ready. Not quite sure if they'll be up and walking any time soon."

Judy cast a nervous glance at Nick, who seemed a bit apprehensive; no doubt he was hoping that his father was faring well enough to recover quickly. Brodi walked back to the suitcase, picked up another photo, and stuck it on the board: night howler. Judy shivered at the very sight of it. It had already corrupted so many; how many more would fall victim to it before all of this was over?

"We already know what they were using on these so-called 'patients,'" explained Brodi. "Night howler's already bad news, but according to these animals, the new, improved version is something to fear on a whole new level. Victims report that their psychological state during the effects of night howler were driven by rage, bloodlust, and an insuppressible instinct to brutally devour anything in their sight. That's why they were so well-bound. Physical changes included, as far as we know, instantaneous muscular growth, excessive drooling, and red eyes. Almost as if…" Brodi smirked and gave a snort. "...dare I say it? As if the host had been temporarily turned into a demonic vessel _or_ a full-fledged demon."

Judy could hardly believe what she was hearing. Demonic night howler? Was that even possible?

"Excuse me, Agent Noho," Bogo spoke up, clearly dubious. "Did you say, 'demonic vessel?'"

"I know," Noho replied. "I can't even believe it, and I _said_ it. The patients also recollect seeing everything with a tint of red while they themselves were being affected by the serum, _and_ they saw archaic-looking symbols when they closed their eyes." he made his way back to the briefcase, talking as he went. "Now, is it a coincidence that they were all being affected by the same thing when they were shot with night howler? I - and the MIB - don't think so." He pulled yet another photo out.

"I'm sorry, sir," Judy asked, finally fed up with this nonsense. "What does this have to do with us?"

"You'll see as soon as I move out of your way, Officer Hopps," Noho said, putting a pin in the photo he was standing in front of. As he moved away, Judy looked into the mugshot of -

"Duke Weaselton?" Nick asked disbelievingly.

"Yep, that's one Duke Weaselton, at your service," Noho replied. "We've suspected him of bootlegging DVDs, but we've already busted him for that. Now we think he's been helping smuggle night howler to Doug, the ram that Officer Hopps emptied her pistol magazine into. It doesn't count as police brutality, by the way, Hopps," he added. "We don't know how many bullets it takes to kill an animal that's under the effects of this new serum, so you couldn't have known when to stop. You're off the hook."

"Thanks, sir," Judy replied, trying to mask her confusion.

"Anyway, we're utilizing your department because..well, frankly, because you've got the baddest-ass cops in Zootopia, and furthermore, you've got two officers who've already busted a night howler distributor before." He motioned to Nick and Judy.

"What does that mean for us, sir?" Bogo asked him.

"That means you get to send said two officers into deep cover, arrest Weaselton, and then have the rest of the department strike at the heart of the bad guys' operation."

Judy looked to Bogo, unsure of what his reaction might be. As always, he was reluctant to let her take charge. "But, sir, we have officers that are more capable of -"

"Officers more capable of arresting someone for doing something they've never even seen before?" Noho laughed. "Good luck explaining the reasoning behind _that_." He started taking down his photos. "Unless you want to waste precious time having inexperienced officers learn how to avoid getting hit by night howler _or_ animals under the effects of night howler, there's no pinch hitter for Officers Hopps and Wilde." He stopped, thought about something for a second, then started pinning everything back up. "These photos are no longer required by the MIB, so I'll leave them here to remind you what we're fighting for."

Judy felt confident; if a government agent vouched for them, who could refuse to let them take the case? Noho bid them a final farewell, tipping his hat and smiling cockily as he walked out the door. "Oh, almost forgot, one more thing," he added, walking back into the room and leaving the door open. "Those FURRIEs you guys got from the FDA," he explained, shifting his eyes between Judy and Nick, "they're a lot more dangerous than we originally thought. We're going to have to ask you to hand them over to the MIB until such a time as we see fit."

Judy spotted a problem with that. "But...won't we need the FURRIEs to get Weaselton to trust us? I mean, you said we're going in 'deep cover,' right?"

Noho gave a chuckle. "Slip of the tongue. I meant that you'll approach Weaselton as cops, get him to divulge the location of whoever's behind all this, and the plan stays the same from there."

"All right, Agent Noho," Nick agreed. "I'll go get mine, it's at my place."

"Excellent," Noho replied. "And yours, Officer Hopps?" He turned to Judy.

Judy didn't know what to say. "Uhh…"

Noho cocked his head. "Are you okay, Officer Hopps?"

"Well...I...uh...my FURRIE was destroyed. Burned down in a house fire. We were attacked by Dawn Bellwether, who was using the device, but she got out of it and escaped before my parents' house burned down. As far as I know, the FURRIE didn't make it out," she explained.

Noho's face fell. "That's a very serious problem. I'm sorry to hear that. Losing something close to your heart is a hard thing to go through. I mean the house, of course. But at least nobody was hurt or killed, and at least Bellwether doesn't have a FURRIE to use."

Judy agreed with him; so what if the FURRIE was gone? She'd manage just fine without it.

"All right," Noho sighed. "Time to go back to HQ. Guess there's talk of a new business popping up where predators and prey can play chase...nonlethally, of course. Goodbye!" he called out before the door closed behind him. As soon as he went, Bogo reverted to his normal grumpy self.

"You two had better come up with something _good_ when you're done with this," he said. "Dismissed."

Judy, almost in a drone-like state, hopped off her chair, opened the door, and walked out of the chief's office, exactly as she so often did. Suddenly, everything was a haze. She could barely remember what she had for breakfast this morning, let alone what had been going on two weeks ago. Wait. Had it really been two weeks since they found the operation, or had it been three? She shook her aching head and kept walking, all the way out to the steps of the police station. She blinked. How had she gotten here so quickly? Her headache kicked in even more. She grabbed her forehead in pain and sat down, closing her eyes and clutching her head, groaning. How? How had this happened?

"Jeez, Judy, are you okay?"

She waved off whoever was talking to her. "Yeah, yeah, I'm fine. Nothing a bit of pain meds won't fix."

She felt someone hugging her from behind. "Come on, Jude the Dude," came the voice, chuckling. And even a headache couldn't make her father unidentifiable enough to miss the one nickname only they both knew. She opened her eyes.

"Dad?" she winced through her head pain.

"Yeah, hon," came his voice, "It's me."

"W-what are you doing here?" Judy asked, confused. The headache was going away.

"Well, I've got to figure out how to get a new house, right?" her father chuckled. "I've been going around, talking to a bunch of different businesses - real estate, construction, the insurance company. Turns out, our fire insurance covers all of the damages done to the house, so we get to keep living in the same place!"

"Really?" Judy, though still in pain, felt joyful for her family's good luck. "That's great news, Dad!" A terrifying thought hit her with full force. "Everyone made it out alive, right, Dad?" She spun around to look at him. Her father was still smiling.

"Everyone's fine! Turns out that fox shelter was a good idea _after_ all, huh?"

"So it _was_ a fox shelter."

Judy jumped and gasped. "Nick?!" she looked over her father's shoulder, who in turn looked behind him to see the shades-clad fox leaning against the wall with his thumbs in his pockets.

"Hey, Nick!" her father greeted him. "Yes, I'm sorry to say that I originally built to keep us safe from foxes that might want to attack us. Have us for dinner, you know?" He chuckled again. "Yeah, I was a paranoid old bunny. But now that I know better, I've now changed its name to a 'storm cellar.'"

"So what brings you to the humble ZPD, Mr. Hopps?" Nick asked, raising his eyebrow above the rims of his sunglasses.

"I was just telling Judy that I was in town and figured I'd stop by to say hello," Judy's dad explained.

"Well, anything you want me to do to help you guys rebuild, let me know," Nick said, shaking her father's paw. "The way I figure it, if we're going to know each other, we should probably work with each other."

"That's really kind of you, Nick," her father thanked him. "So what's happening with you guys, Judy?"

"We've got a case that we're working on," Judy told him. "I can't really get into the details."

Her father's eyes widened as he looked at her in mock-seriousness. 'Got it. Super secret spy stuff. Shhh." He put a finger to his lips. "It's all classified."

"How's mom doing?" Judy asked, all thoughts of her headache now leaving her mind.

"Oh, your mother's fine," her father replied, waving a dismissive paw. "Please. You could tell her doomsday's coming and she'd be totally calm. Though she _is_ a little angry that the SWAT team wasn't secure enough to find the leak in the system."

Judy chuckled. Yep, that was her mother, all right.

"All right, kiddo," her father sighed. "I'd better get back to our hotel room. Kids've probably racked up a huge bill by now."

Judy kissed her father on the cheek. "Love you, Dad."

"Love you too, Judy," her father replied. He looked back at Nick. "Officer."

"Mr. Hopps," Nick replied with a courteous smile.

Her father started for his truck, but stopped and turned around.

"Say, uh...Nick," he began.

"Yes, sir?" Nick asked.

"Whenever you want blueberries…" Judy's father took his hat off as a gesture of respect. "Let us know."

Judy looked back at Nick, who smiled and replied with a sincere "Thank you, sir." She stepped out of her father's way as he descended the steps and climbed into his truck. As he drove away, she turned to face Nick.

"Look, Nick," she said, folding her arms and sighing in remorse. "About the fox shelter thing, I-"

"It doesn't matter." Nick straightened himself and started polishing his glasses with his uniform shirt. "It's a thing of the past now. Your dad's turned a new leaf, and I'm not gonna judge him for what he thought of my kind before he even _met_ me."

Judy was pleasantly surprised. Nick was always angry when others discriminated against him; what made her father so special? Wait. Her father. _Her_ father. Was he only being kind to him because the rabbit was his girlfriend's father? Did Nick play nice only when it benefited him? Or had he, like her father, really begun to view animals in a different light? She left herself a mental note to talk about this with Nick before she started talking about the daunting task ahead of him.

"So what should we do first?" she asked him.

Nick chuckled. "Well, you tell me, Carrots. Do you have any ideas?"

Judy thought about it. "Let me see here," she started. "We can't just knock on his door and approach him directly, so…" She scratched her head. "I'm stumped."

Nick pointed his snout at the ground. Suddenly, his muzzle shot straight up and looked at her.

"Why can't we?" he asked.

Judy didn't follow. "Why can't we what?"

"Knock on his door," Nick explained.

"Pfft." Was Nick being serious? Judy pointed out the hole in his plan. "Yeah, _that_ sounds like a good way to get shot in the face."

Nick clicked his tongue to convey false disappointment. "Carrots, Carrots, Carrots," he said, shaking his head. "Always have to be a downer."

"Well, do _you_ have any ideas to keep us from getting killed?" Judy asked. If Nick could come up with a plan, she would be rather surprised indeed. It was a long shot, and he knew it.

Nick put his paw on his chin and furrowed his brow, swishing his tail in thought. Then he snapped his fingers and pointed at her.

"Do you have a laser pointer?" he asked.

"Yes," Judy said hesitantly. "But I don't see how that's going to help us."

A confident, yet mischievous smile spread across Nick's face. "Oh, you'll see."

* * *

"Are sure about this, Nick?" Judy had her doubts about his plan. It was really no more than a long shot. All they had was Nick's charm, a laser pointer, and, if it all went wrong, two semiautomatic pistols and almost no cover among the grass. Duke was in the shack up ahead, most likely listening to the blaring country music that she had been able to hear about a mile away. She had seen a couple extra bodies through the one dirty, broken window in the wall. It appeared to be a late-night poker game. Probably not the best time to try and get information out of someone. Yet here they were.

"Of course I am, Carrots," Nick replied, turning back to look at her. "I've done this before, actually."

Judy scoffed; Nick loved his tall tales.

"What?"

"Like you ever had a bluff this high-stakes while you were interrogating a suspect before," she replied, doubting him.

"Oh, ye of little faith," Nick said. "Just follow my lead, all right?" He looked back at the shack and took a step, then seemed to second-guess himself and retreated, getting closer to Judy.

"Hey, what happened with the whole FURRIE return thing?" Judy asked as he approached.

Nick waved his paw. "Tssh, fine. I mean, come on. We only needed it for that one mission, and besides, they're more trouble than they're worth. I'm glad I don't have to worry about constantly making sure my FURRIE hasn't been stolen by an insane animal trying to get everyone to go savage and attack each other. Quick mic check," he added, turning on the wire he had outfitted himself with. "Is it working?" he asked. There was the smallest of delays before Judy heard Nick's digital voice in her ear. _"Is it working?"_

She nodded. "Yep. But aren't you the least bit saddened about the fact that you won't be able to prank anyone anymore?"

"Fair point, but like I said, it's a huge weight off my shoulders. It's how I imagine having a kid would be like, and I'm just not ready for that responsibility yet."

Judy took the opportunity to steer the conversation in the direction she wanted it to lead. "You don't think you ever want kids?"

Nick scoffed and looked at her. "Of _course_ I want kids eventually, Carrots," he said. "But now's not the time. I've gotta fix this whole night howler mess before I even _think_ about mating."

Judy felt differently. "Well, _I'm_ ready right now."

"Just wait for me, Judy," Nick replied. "I'll get there eventually. And when I do…" He quickly looked away as a smile spread slowly across his muzzle. "Well...we'll have some fun.

"All right, then. Make sure to keep that laser pointer straight. Love you." With that, Nick kissed her on the cheek, said, "Just in case," and ran off to proceed with the plan. Judy watched from a distance as he approached the door, took a few deep breath and jumped up and down to get ready, then turned the knob and walked in.

For only a second, Judy heard the poker game going in full swing: chips clacking together, cards being shuffled, conversation. Then it all went deathly quiet, the music no exception to being silenced.

" _You got some nerve comin' here, Wilde,"_ came Weaselton's voice.

" _Yeah, ain't you outta the game?"_ Finnick, of all people, joined in.

" _Oh, no, I'm not out of the game."_ Judy looked through the window and saw Weaselton just sitting there, right in her line of sight. Perfect. Just as planned…

" _I'm just on the winning team now,"_ Nick finished his sentence. _"Speaking of out of the game, didn't we arrest you for street racing?"_

" _Got a probation, Wilde,"_ came Finnick's oddly gruff voice. _"Can't touch my ass!"_

" _And I don't want to touch your ass anyway, so we're all good,"_ Nick replied. _"What luck."_

" _Yeah? Well, you're not gonna be part of the winning team with lead in your head, are you, Wilde?"_ Judy heard guns cocking as she watched Weaselton pull out his piece. That was her cue. She turned the laser pointer on and lined it up with the middle of Duke's white tank top.

" _Oooh, Duke,"_ came Nick's faux-concerned voice. _"Y-You got a little, uh...little..."_

Duke looked down, and Judy couldn't help but smile as his face lit up in realization. He shifted his attention back to Nick, clearly very, very unhappy.

" _You have my attention, Wilde,"_ Weaselton spat, holstering his weapon. _"Now what is it you want?"_

" _Well, for starters, I'm helping myself to one of these Cubans,"_ came the disembodied reply. Wait. Cubans? As in Cuban cigars? But...Nick didn't smoke. What did he want with a cigar? _"I owe a friend big-time, and this is the perfect thing for him. Because let's face it, the forbidden fruit always tastes the sweetest."_

" _Oh, is that why you've been try'n'a bang that bunny cop?"_

Judy heard Nick chuckle; he sounded a little lustful if her ears weren't playing tricks on her. _"Not at all, Wezzelton. Not at all."_ The scraping of a chair against wood could be heard as Judy watched Nick sit across the table from Weaselton. _"It's just true love. You should try it sometime if you meet the right guy."_

Weaselton bared his teeth. _"It's 'Weaselton,' Nicky,"_ he snarled.

Nick waved a dismissive paw. _"Weaselton, Wezzelton. You're the same ferret."_

" _Weasel!"_ Weaselton shouted in anger.

" _Isn't that what I just said?"_ Nick muttered. _"Anyway, I'm not just here to mooch off your Cubies. I need information."_

Judy watched Duke sneer and was pricked by a spark of anger. Who did he think the was?

" _Yeah? You think I'm talking to a cop?"_

" _Careful,"_ Nick warned him, pointing to the laser dot that Judy was still training on his chest. _"One wrong move, and you'll be everywhere."_

" _And how are you gonna explain murdering me when the other cops come by, huh?"_

Judy saw Nick raise his hands and arms in a large shrug. _"I've got deniability, Duke. Yeah, I was here, but another animal…"_ Nick lowered his voice. _"...who's a contract killer, by the way…"_ He began to talk at a normal volume again. _"...shot you three and wounded me. It'll look like a rival gang member or a vigilante attacked us while I was confronting you for possession of Cuban cigars. And yes, I have a warrant to do so, but like I said, there's another little...task I have for you."_

Duke chuckled. _"If you're looking for a mouth-off, you're asking the wrong guy."_ He began cleaning his teeth with a toothpick.

" _Rest assured, what I'm asking has nothing to do with your Saturday night job at the club, Duke,"_ Nick said wittingly, as if carrying on informal conversation with a friend. Judy, who could see nothing but the back of his head, would have paid money to see the smirk on his muzzle. For whatever reason, even though she hated it when he flashed it at her when she realized he was right and she was wrong, it had grown on her. She could get used to it, given enough time. _"No, this is something much more serious."_

" _How so?"_ came the weasel's suspecting reply.

" _The night howler serum,"_ Nick said simply. _"You've got a record for smuggling it in the past, and you helped us take down a very bad individual. Now it's back on the rise, and who's the first person we think of?"_

Weaselton smiled and cackled. _"Maybe I did, maybe I didn't. What's it to you?"_

" _Look, Weaselton, you have three options."_ Nick held up a paw with his index finger raised. _"Option one: you flat-out refuse to cooperate and decide to attack me, and you three get assassinated by my killer while I take a shot in the arm or leg. And let's face it, then I'd remember you as the guy who made me get shot in order to save the world. Option two: you refuse to tell me anything, a new criminal mastermind rises to power, and we begin life in hell, or option three - you tell me exactly who you've been supplying night howler to, we take him or her down, and you're allowed to operate at least until we finish with the night howler head honcho."_

Judy watched Weaselton lay back in his chair and sigh, thinking about it as he twirled the toothpick about his hand. _"All right,"_ he said suddenly, slamming his paws on the table. _"What's in it for me?"_

" _Shortened sentence,"_ Nick replied simply. _"Need I remind you, you've been supplying a psycho -well, probably a psycho, I haven't had the chance to meet 'em yet - with this enhanced Satanist night howler stuff, so you're pretty much guaranteed some jail time."_ Nick pretended to be thinking. _"Hmm, now wouldn't it be nice if you didn't have to serve your entire sentence? After all, we'd slowly be solving the overcrowded jails problem."_

Duke seemed to be thinking about it. He stared at Nick. Judy became apprehensive.

"Come on, Weaselton," she muttered. "Just tell us, already. Come on…"

Finally, Duke smiled. _"All right. Fine. You sure as hell know how to put a carrot on a really long stick, Wilde."_ He spread his arms and started chuckling. _"You sure you want to know?"_

" _If I wasn't sure I wanted to know, then I wouldn't be here."_ Nick was pressing Duke pretty well.

Duke started to nod. _"It's no other than a cop."_

" _A cop?"_ Nick sounded shocked. And Judy, while also surprised, had known that it was a possibility. But who? Nick asked the question for her. _"Who is it?"_

" _None other than your friendly neighborhood chief of police."_

Judy felt her mouth drop open. Chief Bogo? What would make him turn on his own career? She realized she was letting her hand drop, and immediately compensated to keep her laser on Duke. Nick wasn't buying it, either.

" _Nah,"_ he said skeptically. _"Bogo's a psycho, but he's not evil."_

Judy watched Duke sneer. _"Yeah? Did he tell you about what happened at Mr. Big's compound yet?"_

 _"What are you talking about? Big was kidnapped, wasn't he?"_

 _"Yeah, by two of his alleged employees. Bogo saw them underneath a waterfall, pretending to be, shall we say, intimate. Now, would he really have believed them? Come on, there's no possible way two male polar bears are going to admit to midnight rendezvouses. So why would he do nothing to stop them? Because he wanted Mr. Big out of the way. Big had him on a tight leash, or so I assume. Get rid of the shrew, and the skies are clear. Bogo could expand his operation."_

Nick was clearly starting to believe Duke was telling the truth, but he kept playing the doubtful cop. _"That doesn't explain Dawn Bellwether infiltrating the ranks of a SWAT team, trying to turn me savage, and then burning Judy's house down."_ Judy heard anger sprinkled in his voice. He hadn't lost his cool, but Judy could tell he was getting close. She took a deep breath, her hand still unwaveringly focused on Duke's chest.

 _"That's because Bellwether's freelancing, Childe,"_ Duke told him.

 _"Don't call me that, Wezzelton. I hated that as a kid, and I hate it now."_

 _"Don't call_ me _Wezzelton,"_ Duke bit back.

 _"You're trying to distract me,"_ Nick said sharply, catching on to Weaselton's plan. _"Bellwether. What's going on with her?"_

 _"She decided that it was better to operate without anyone else. Steal from the night howler manufacturers. Luckily enough for Zootopia, she's not gotten her hands on the new stuff yet."_

 _"Yeah, quick question about that. Are you trying to turn the victims into demons?"_ Nick asked.

Duke chuckled. _"That's the best part. Woolter was able to control the hallucinogenic nature of the drug. Every victim sees the same thing. Every. Single. Time. No variations, no exceptions. Back to Bellwether. She's operating on her own, but she's still a serious threat. We've put hit teams out on her, but to no avail."_

 _"So Bogo's in charge, Bellwether wants to take over the operation, and...you're okay with just being the drug runner?"_

 _"The pay's kick-ass,"_ Duke said simply. _"How do you think I got those Cubans?"_

 _"Well, how do I know for sure that you're telling me the truth?"_ Nick pressed him. Way to go, Nick, Judy thought to herself. Looking for actionable intelligence. Smart, smart fox…

 _"All right, then, Nicky Nick,"_ Duke taunted. _"Look in Bogo's safe. It's located in his office, behind his bedside table-looking thing. The wall panel behind it's a fake. He'll have some of the blue stuff in it...along with the poor guy's entire collection of...well…'watch-alone' movies, if you know what I mean."_

Nick chortled suspectingly. _"So you expect me to believe that the chief of police told you about his secret safe where he keeps his night howler and porno stash?"_

 _"Nope,"_ Duke said simply. _"I snuck in and had a looky-look for myself. I knew he was hiding the stuff somewhere in his office, and since I'm good at accessing hard-to-access areas, I got myself in there no problemo. Of course, had I known the chief was into every single kind of two-way intercourse, I'd have never risked going in there. Front covers alone were enough to make me wrestle down my lunch."_

Judy knew his pain; now _she_ was imagining a bunch of racy movie covers and trying not to get reaquainted with her dinner.

 _"So I'll make the chief open it. So what?"_ Nick got up, making sure to avoid crossing the laser. _"Oooh. And, actually. Before I go -"_

 _"Another Cuban? What, your friend's using those cigars to rehearse his all-male three-way?"_

Nick, who had been walking towards the door, stopped, turned around, and pointed the cigar at Duke.

 _"No, Duke, he's not."_ He put the cigar in his mouth. _"This one's for me. Get your head outta the gutter,"_ he mumbled through the large smoking agent.

Judy watched as Nick walked out nonchalantly, still keeping an eye on Duke and his posse. Eventually, the laser pointer was lowered, the music came back on, the poker chips were thrown at the middle of the table, and everyone's nerves settled. Well...all except Judy's. Bogo? How were they going to place him under arrest? Nick was within hugging distance now. Judy gave him a look of fear.

"Nick?" she asked quietly. "I...How…What do we do?"

"I don't know, Carrots," Nick replied, taking the cigar out of his mouth. "I don't know."

"Who do we talk to?" Judy couldn't stop asking him question. "Why -"

She was silenced as Nick pressed his lips against hers. Judy's first instinct was to pull back, her mind yelling at her to run away from the advancing predator; the fleeting feeling melted into affection, affection to passion, passion to euphoria. She welcomed Nick's love like a long-lost relative, kissing him back with an equal ferocity. It was perfect...well, excepting the country music in the background. Her "what-if"s and "but"s and questions soared off into the distance, headbutted out of their importance by sole devotion to one Nicholas Wilde…Judy pulled back slowly, hoping Nick would take the hint; he did, and their moment faded. But oh, what a moment it had been! A sob of joy eked its way past her vocal cords, and she stifled it by holding her paw over her mouth, looking at the caring canine with soulful eyes.

"You better?" he asked, stroking the back of her head with his paw.

"Mm-hmmm," Judy replied, wiping a test from her cheek. His paw pads felt good against her fur. But she knew these were dangerous waters: if they kept doing this, one of them would succumb to lust, and as much as she wanted to give Nick pleasure, now was not the time nor the place. "You know, we should get back, plan things out from home."

Nick's paw stopped its movement. "Yeah, you're probably right, Carrots. Another time." His gaze darted to the ground. "Problem is…"

He slowly met Judy's eyes.

"...how do we keep this whole thing a secret from the chief?"

"I don't know," Judy said. "Tell you what. How about we go home tonight and then confront the chief in the morning...with backup?"

Nick shrugged his shoulders. "Okay. I'll drive, then?"

"You know where my apartment -" Judy caught herself. "Oh, right. Never mind."

Nick gave her an odd look. "How did you forget that, exactly?"

"I don't know," she admitted. "Caught up in the moment, I guess." She started back towards Nick's car. "Come on," she called out to him. "We need rest if we want to get Bogo behind bars tomorrow."

"All right Carrots, all right," Nick said. He walked over to the other side of his car and climbed in, Judy following suit. What she wouldn't give to be at home sleeping right now...she closed her eyes and sat in silence as Nick drove her back to her apartment. Her brain still kept up the lie that her ears had tricked her, that she had heard the wrong name. Bogo was tough, yes, but a criminal he was not. As far as she knew, he had devoted his life to keeping the streets safe. Was she supposed to believe that just because a new drug had been created, this lifelong police officer was willing to uproot his career in order to turn animals savage on one another? Who would even think about doing that? Only anarchists, another very inaccurate description of the chief. "I just can't believe it," she muttered to herself quietly, eyes still closed.

"Look, Carrots," Nick said, making her jump; she had momentarily forgotten that he was good at hearing, too. "Sometimes you have to accept something you don't believe could happen even in your wildest dreams. What do you think was running through my head when you gave me my badge at graduation? Cause I can guarantee you it wasn't, 'Wow, this is exactly how I saw myself ten years ago.'"

Nick didn't get it. "Nick...that's different. That was _graduation_. This is much more serious. This is about keeping _all_ of Zootopia - _all_ of Zootopia - safe from a drug that could end up making the population kill each other off! And now Duke tells us that the animal behind this whole thing is the one who's in charge of every single cop in the city? How do we fight that?!"

"Judy, listen to me _very_ carefully," Nick ordered her, calm as ever as he drove through the streets. "Bogo is a major threat to our security, yes, but we have to be smart about arresting him."

"' _Be smart about arresting him?_ '" Judy could hardly take Nick seriously. "How are you supposed to be _smart_ about arresting somebody? If you follow the procedure, then there should be no problem stopping Bogo!"

"But, Carrots, he's not going to just accept defeat. He's going to fight back, probably pull out his piece and use it on whoever tries to bring him in." Judy was caught off guard as her driver began to rummage around in his backseat, eventually pulling out, with considerable effort, what looked like a fox-sized bulletproof vest. "Here, hold this," he said, giving it to Judy.

The second Nick let go of the object, Judy nearly broke her back trying to catch it; the sheer weight of the vest was enough to crush her.

"Holy hell, Nick!" she wheezed. "Why do you even _have_ this thing?"

Nick made a face. "Figured I'd need it. Took it from my locker."

"What's the point of giving it to me?" Judy asked him, still straining to avoid hurting herself.

"We're going to need it, maybe."

Judy wanted to believe that he was joking. "What, _now_?"

"Yeah, now." Nick looked much more ferocious, more determined...more angry. "We're stopping this guy tonight. _Right now._ No questions asked. He tortured my father. We're taking his ass down _tonight_."

"Nick, listen to me. You're not thinking straight. We're going to get killed."

"We're two cops against one. We have more guns, more manpower, and more determination. Now yes, Bogo might be stronger than us, but he's not expecting us to realize that he's the one who's behind everything."

"But how do we know he's even going to _be_ at the station?" Judy kept doubting him. At this point, she was looking for any excuse to just go home and continue this some other time.

Nick gave her a look. "He's obsessed with his work. He's a workaholic. Loves his work. Married to the job. So why do something productive at home when you can, say, pretend to work late while watching your head being Photoshopped onto one of Gazelle's dancers?"

Judy made a face. "He does that?"

Nick gave a one-armed shrug, still angry. "Guy needs his eye candy, and apparently, Bogo's his own eye candy." He screeched into the ZPD parking lot and turned the engine off, stopping only to quickly draw a deep breath before getting out and opening the trunk. Judy, who was still opening her own door, grabbed the bulletproof vest Nick had so unceremoniously given her and began to put it on.

"But I still don't understand," she protested, slipping her arms into the vest. "Why would Bogo do this?"

"Same reason anyone does anything," Nick replied from behind the vehicle. "Money." As the trunk closed, Judy saw Nick was holding another article of clothing, this time much more odd-looking. She found it was fur-tight as Nick put it on, and noticed that it had a bunch of individual squares filled with the same red-colored liquid. "Jeez, Nick, what _is_ that thing?"

"My own little bulletproof vest," Nick replied, his head popping out of the corresponding hole. "Figured out how to sweet-talk Jay into giving me one of these beauts. They go on underneath your uniform, effectively making it look like you're completely unprotected. But when they shoot at you...You're still breathing." Nick pointed out the red squares. "I added these for theatrical effect. Makes for a nice blood spray. Creates a more realistic illusion that way."

"So _that's_ why you weren't all that hung up on having to lose the FURRIE," Judy said with the tone of one who had just had an epiphany.

"Yep," Nick confirmed, throwing hs patrolman's shirt back on over the new device. "Now." He jumped up and down and let his head and hands go limp. "Let's go arrest us a criminal, huh?"

Judy nodded. "But we can't just go in guns blazing, Nick," she pointed out. "Act natural until we get into Bogo's office, then we can pull out our pieces." It wasn't so much a reminder for him as it was for her; the adrenaline racing through her veins urged her to barge in and pull no punches, but she realized that she couldn't. She would have to wait. But when she did...well, she was going to give him a piece of her mind that he wouldn't soon forget. Her restraint for barging in, however, seemed to be the least bit forgotten; she bounded up the steps, three at a time, in a successful attempt to expedite the process. At the top of the stairs, she turned back and waited for Nick, who was a little behind.

"Wow," he said, taking quick little steps and ascending only one stair at a time while moving his arms in a jogging motion. "Save some energy for taking down the big guy, huh?"

Judy rolled her eyes. "I've got plenty of energy to spare."

Nick reached the top as he replied, "Sure you do, Carrots. Sure you do," sarcastically.

"Shall we enter the devil's lair?" Judy asked him, trying to make light of the situation.

"Well, come on, that's not fair. Yeah, sure, Bogo has horns, but that barely makes him -"

Judy shoved the door open. "Just get inside already," she sighed. As Nick went through the door, she followed by his side, going for an inconspicuous "cop buddies" look. The station was nearly deserted. Only a few officers remained, finishing reports and filing cases and whatnot. Judy tried to stave off any potential suspicion by calmly starting a cover-up conversation with Nick.

"So, hey, do you follow sports?" she asked.

The fox shook his head. "Didn't really understand the obsession some have with the latest athletic news. Way I see it, they bleed just like everyone else, so...what's the point in glorifying them?"

Judy suddenly realized her eyes were wide open, and quickly corrected herself as they made their way up to the chief's office. "But, Nick," she added, trying to keep up the topic, "those animals work really hard to be really good at what they do. And they _love_ what they do. There's no reason to be so hostile."

"I'm not being hostile at all, Carrots," Nick said earnestly. "I'm giving you my opinion, and my opinion is that they're just like every other employee - hardworking, dedicated, and committed, yes...but mortal."

"All right, grumpy pants," Judy said. "What _do_ you do for fun?"

"Play musical instruments, write, read, draw." Nick lowered his voice. "And _some_ times, I even dream about being married to a certain _some_ one."

Judy gave him a playful slug on the shoulder. "You're so bad, Nick."

Nick chuckled seductively. "And don't you forget it," he concluded as they reached the chief's door. Judy took a deep breath, trying to keep her twitching nose under control. This was it. The end to the night howler. The beginning of a new kind of peace, of security. It all started with her. She gripped the doorknob gingerly, as if she thought it was poisonous or she was coming home late at night and trying not to wake the slumbering bodies inside. Her heart rate spiked as she turned the knob and hears the click. Slowly, she pushed the door open, the anger she had felt just minutes ago now subsiding into a sense of somberness and some kind of...reverence.

"What are you doing here, Hopps?" the chief said, looking at her over the rims of his glasses and seeming just as irritated as ever. "If you want extra work for no pay, just ask. Don't be shy."

It was like he was trying to beat around the bush, digressing from the real reason she was here. She took a deep breath. "Chief Bogo, you are under arrest," she replied, pulling out her weapon and pointing it at him.

Bogo looked very upset indeed. "You're... _bloody_...kidding me."

"Don't try anything, sir." Nick joined the conversation; Judy heard him loading the chamber of his gun. "We don't want this to end in bloodshed any more than you do."

"What...in the _hell_...are you two going on about?" Bogo rose to his full height. "If this is a prank, it's not funny, and I won't have it."

"Drop the act, Chief," Judy said indignantly. "We know you're behind the night howler, and we're taking you in."

"Uhh, Carrots, he's technically already in the station," Nick said.

"I'm cutting your paychecks for this one," the chief said, walking out from behind his desk.

"STOP RIGHT THERE!" Nick snarled. Judy jumped as he did, not expecting him to get so emotional about it. "YOU'RE BEHIND THE NIGHT HOWLER CONSPIRACY, AND NOW IT'S TIME TO ANSWER FOR YOUR GOD- _DAMNED_ CRIMES!"

"Don't...you... _dare_...blame me for that," the chief said.

"HOOVES BEHIND YOUR BACK!" Judy ordered. "DO IT! DO IT NOW!"

" _Listen to me!_ " Bogo resisted. "I had nothing to do with -"

"I SWEAR TO GOD, I'LL SHOOT YOU!" Nick yelled behind Judy. "SHOW ME YOUR HOOVES!"

The door burst open again; Judy took a quick glance to see who the newcomers were. Clawhauser and two other officers, Fangmeyer and Judy's old drill instructor, came in with their guns raised. Her instructor, an individual who could easily become worked-up, pulled her own weapon and asked her old pupil, "Hopps, what's goin' on up in here?"

"The chief's been behind the night howler conspiracy since Bellwether was stopped," Judy explained. "We're placing him under arrest."

"This is ridiculous!" the chief cried out. "I have no idea what you're talking about!"

"Oh, yeah?" Nick asked doubtfully. "Then let's have a look in your safe, shall we?"

The request made the chief falter. "Wh-what?" he asked, bewildered.

"Yeah," Nick replied. "Don't think we didn't know about _that_ little development. Behind that small table over there?" He pointed to the table.

The chief sighed. "All right, yes, there's a safe back there, but there's nothing in there except a few spare guns, some money, and a box of cigars!"

Clawhauser chimed in. "Well, chief, I mean, I'm not the best at investigation," he started, just as timid as ever, "but if what you're saying is totally true, then, uh, showing us what's inside your safe wouldn't hurt. Cold, hard, evidence of your innocence, right?"

"Y-yeah, I guess that's right," the chief said. He slowly walked to the safe.

"Nice and slow, chief," Judy told him. "Just like that."

The chief kept making his way to the table. Once he arrived, he picked it up slowly, moved it to the side, and pulled the false wall out from its resting place. He looked back at Judy, almost as if he was unsure what to do now.

"Go on, chief," she urged him. "If you're story's true and I'm wrong, I personally guarantee you I'll volunteer for two months of parking duty."

The chief smirked. "All right, Hopps, but you're fighting a losing battle." He dialed the combination. Judy heard the click, and watched as the chief looked at her with a confident smile on his face as he opened the safe. He looked in, and his face fell.

"No," he said. "No, this isn't possible."

The rest of the cops flocked to the safe to see the contents.

"What the hell is all this?" the chief asked.

Judy got a look, and gasped. Duke's tip had been right. Every single word of it.


	13. Let's Try This Again, Shall We?

"What's wrong witchoo?"

The drill instructor was the first to speak after the unveiling of the safe's contents. Judy looked away. The sheer volume of videos was disgusting enough, but the night howler was there too. Three vials' worth of the drug were in his safe, and that was proof enough for her. But Nick beat her to the punch.

"Chief Bogo, you are under arrest for possession and distribution of an illegal substance, torture, and conspiracy to commit murder. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be held against you in a court of law. You have the right to have a lawyer present during any questioning. If you are unable to afford a lawyer, one will be appointed for you if you so desire." Nick finished the chief's Miranda rights just as he clicked the cuffs around the chief's hooves. He turned to the rest of them. "Someone help me out here? Scrawny little fox isn't gonna be able to do much if psycho cape buffalo tries to run for it."

"My pleasure," the instructor said. "Man, you got _problems_ ," she added, addressing the chief as she led him out of the door, relieving Nick of duty. "We gotta get you some Jesus time, that's what _I'm_ sayin'. Hey, yo! Someone wanna put that stuff in an evidence bag, already?"

Judy watched Clawhauser whip out such a device like it was something everyone carried with them at all times. "I've got this, guys," he said, walking over to the safe. But once he saw what was in it, he flipped.

"AAAHHHHH!" he shrieked, and, dropping the bag, ran over behind Judy.

"Uh...you okay, Ben?" Nick asked the cheetah.

"Mhmm, yeah, I'm fine," Clawhauser said. "I just...didn't expect that." He whimpered and shook his head. "I don't wanna, I don't wanna. I'm not touching any of that."

Judy took matters into her own paws; grabbing the bag, she used it as a glove, got the vials of night howler, and put them in the evidence bag without touching them. "There we go," she said. "The crime lab should be able to make sense of what happened. Once they see Bogo's prints on this, there won't be a doubt."

"Man," Clawhauser said dejectedly. "I thought the chief was all right. I mean, sure, he was tough on all of us, but I _never_ thought he would ever be part of the other side of the law."

"Me neither, Ben," Judy agreed. "But it is what it is, I guess. It's a shame the chief's gone. I hope the next chief is -"

"Guys," Nick said. "You're talking like he's dead."

"Well, his career is, Nick," Judy pointed out. "He was behind the night howlers, so he's probably looking at life imprisonment. And he's _definitely_ not getting a job here again."

"Yeah, you're right," Nick said. "Still, it's just weird. Three hours ago, he was the same old chief. Now...now we don't care about all the good things he did. All we're going to remember him for is the night howler. It's like Mayor Cryxon and the Otterbate scandal."

Judy hadn't thought of it that way, but now that Nick mentioned it, it was a fair point. After all, the chief had kept the city mostly crime-free for a vast majority of the time he had been in his occupation while uncorrupted, and he did let Judy prove herself. He arrested Bellwether, got Mayor Lionheart a full pardon, and shut down the night howler operations. But then, as far as Judy knew, he must have realized that there was a lot of money to be made in night howler production. Greed got the better of the chief, and now he was going to pay dearly for it.

"At least he'll get a fair trial," she said, though she was trying to calm herself down more than she was the rest of the group.

"Depends if the judge is predator or prey," Nick speculated. "I realize they're supposed to be fair, but I tell you, if _I_ was the one with the gavel, I'd want him to suffer."

"Well, Nick, I hope you don't mind my saying so, but that might be because he's personally involved your father," Clawhauser said, still very timid.

"Still…" Nick replied. "No one's completely without bias. I just hope the bias is in our favor. You know..." He gave Judy a look that seemed as if he was contemplating. "This is probably why he was trying to discredit us and halt the investigation into the night howler test labs."

"Why are we all still standing around?" Officer Fangmeyer finally said something. "We've still got work to do. Well, I do, at least."

"Officer Fangmeyer's right," Judy agreed. "I'm sure we're all very busy, and I, for one, don't want to dawdle any longer than I have to."

"Yeah, I could hit the sack right about now," Nick chimed in. "Need a ride home, Carrots?"

"You _did_ drive me over here, so yeah, I need a ride back," Judy said.

"Okay, then." Nick walked out the door first, followed by Fangmeyer. Judy started for the door, then turned back around and looked at Clawhauser.

"Ben…" she started. "You know I'll always be on the right side of the law, don't you?"

Clawhauser nodded. "Yeah, but I'm going to play it cautious. I mean -" He chuckled. " - the last person I expected to be a criminal turned out to be the one behind the blue terror."

"Understandable," Judy assured him. "Kay. See you tomorrow, Ben!"

"Yeah," Clawhauser muttered with a halfhearted smile; the news had clearly hit him much harder than she thought. "See you, Judy."

Judy turned around and walked into the reception room of the ZPD, holding the door open for Ben behind her as she went. Nick was right outside the glass doors, waiting for her. She sped up a little, her apartment calling her and her desire to sleep attacking her even more ferociously. Nick smiled at her as she came closer, a courtesy which she returned wearily.

"Someone's got sleepy eyes," he teased her as she walked out of the building.

"Shut up," she chuckled with a sigh.

"All right," Nick replied. "Let's go home."

"Let's." Judy began to walk, passing Nick as she went. The fox caught up to her quickly, and as a pair they walked to Nick's vehicle. The voice in Judy's head was back again.

Tell him, it said.

I don't want to, she told it.

Too bad, it bit back. Tell him anyway.

Seriously, she warned. Leave me alone.

You didn't want to tell him when you two were almost killed in your parents' house fire, it argued. You know you actually do love him. You do actually love him, right?

Yes, of course I do, she said. And of course I know that.

Right, it said. But he doesn't.

Judy succumbed. Fine. What do I do?

Well, start things off easy, it instructed as they approached the car. Hold his paws. Do it. Do it now.

Judy slowly raised her paw, moving to get a grasp on Nick's. She looked at him as she did so, but he took notice. He glanced down and realized what was happening, but, instead of pulling his hand away, gently took her paw in his own, fingers interlaced.

"You want to hold my hand, Carrots, just say so," he said as they walked.

Good, good, the voice encouraged her. Now just tell him you love him, but do it subtly.

How?

Just bring up a topic and then start relating it to him in some way.

"Hey, Nick," she started awkwardly. "Do you, uh -"

Nick held up his free index finger. "Let me stop you right there, Carrots," he said. "I know you're trying to dodge around saying something you desperately want to say. Would you please just tell me what it is? I don't like having to disguise things when I'm with you."

That's great, the voice said. Now you can tell him right from the heart.

"Nick…" Judy took a deep breath. "I love you."

Nick gave her another look, as he so often did. "Course you love me. Everyone loves me. It's cause I do a little bit of everything. And I moisturize." He ran his paw through the top of his head, pulling his ears back with them; they sprang back up when he finished.

"No, Nick," Judy protested as they opened their respective car doors simultaneously. "Not like that kind of love." She closed her door, buckling her seat belt as she talked. "I'm talking about a different kind of love."

Nick started the car. "Ohhh," he said, realizing what she meant. " _That_ kind of love."

Judy nodded silently. She wasn't sure he saw her, but no harm, no foul. "Look, Nick, I know we got off to a rough start, but I think we're past that now. I love you like crazy, and I'm sure you do too."

"Nope," Nick sighed, pulling out of the parking lot. "I don't love myself like crazy." He gave her a suave look. "I love _you_ like crazy."

Really? _Really?_ Internally, Judy was pissed; but she kept up the charade for Nick's sake. He wasn't taking this seriously at all. What was his problem? She racked her brain for an instance where he trusted her with something he couldn't trust with anyone- Wait. His college story. He never explicitly said it, but Judy could guess that she was the only animal he had ever felt comfortable telling that story to. If he didn't have deep feelings for her, why would he tell her?

"Look, Nick," she started. "Back at my parents' house, when we were looking for weapons. You told me about the accident your junior year. You told me about May. You told me about the dean. And it hurt, I can tell. But it wasn't just any kind of hurt. It was the kind of hurt you feel when you're confiding in someone you trust, someone you love. Do you know what that says to me?"

Nick seemed much more uncomfortable now; the topic was clearly upsetting him. "What?" he asked, a little shortly.

"You love me," Judy replied. " _That_ 's what that says to me. And I love you, too."

Nick chuckled unhappily. "I don't want to talk about this right now, Carrots. Not now."

"Come on, Nick," Judy pressured him. "I just want you to be honest with me. Do you love me?"

Nick sputtered in protest. "Of course I do, Judy. But I don't want to have this discussion now. Too much has happened in the past few hours for me to think about anything, and it's been a really long day."

Judy sighed in frustration. She knew Nick wasn't going to talk to her...yet.

It's all right, the voice reassured her. There will be a time when he wants to talk about it. Just be patient.

He never wants to talk about feelings, Judy snapped back. Why would he suddenly change?

Remember his mantra?

Never let them see that they get to you, Judy recited. But what does that have to do with anything?

Well, Judy, it means that maybe he doesn't even want to let those who love him know that they get to him.

But that doesn't make sense! What kind of animal decides he won't let his loved ones know they get to him, then pour out his feelings to his significant other?

Do you recall his meeting with the dean, Judy?

Yes. Of course I do.

He shouted at the poor guy. For almost a full minute.

And? Where are you going with this?

Sometimes you can't help yourself, Judy. There comes a time when the emotions going through your head are so powerful that you can't possibly keep your cool. That's what happened when Nick went off at the dean, and that's what happened when he started telling you about getting beat up in college.

Judy stopped fighting the voice. It was right. Now she was aware of how awkwardly silent the car was. But instead of trying to alleviate it, she just sat there, wallowing in the uncomfortable situation. Nick had sensed it, too.

"Well, I don't know about you, but I'm thinking some music'd help." He hit the button on his dashboard, and through the radio jumped...what was it? Judy had never heard this kind of music before. It sounded like some kind of jazz style, with its trumpets and trombones, but the melody sounded like a funk line with a rock drumbeat in the background. As she started thinking about the music more, she became more and more aware of the fact that Nick's musical know-how and random lessons had rubbed off on her. She had no idea how she did it, but all she knew was that this sounded like three different genres of music for three different reasons.

"You know, listening to music was a lot more fun until you started to teach me how to scrutinize every song known to animalkind," she remarked, teasing him.

"Scrutinizing music _is_ fun," Nick replied. "For example, I can tell you that there are no more than three different drum loops that pop stars use. That's why I'm partial to rock and metal - well, excepting the blast-beater side of metal. Their drummers are just steroid-ridden psychos who have seizures behind the set. My point is, if you're going to make a song, make every single piece of the puzzle unique and interesting to listen to."

Judy had a test for him. "What about classical music?"

"Are you kidding? They _did_ have percussion sections, damn big ones too. Those things were awesome. Bells and chimes and the glockenspiel...the works!"

"I meant like Vivaldi, Bach, Beethoven. The violin and piano musicians."

"First off, the piano _is_ a percussion instrument. Second off, classical music that included violins didn't use percussion because the two are very different-sounding sections. Imagine a fortissimo bass drum right in the middle of 'The Blue Danube.' Not very pleasing to the ears, I can tell you that."

"Okay, smarty," she replied. "If you're so musically educated, then what's this?"

"Funk rock," Nick said. "Rock drumbeat, funk melody. The trumpets give it a N'awlins drawl, and the distortion from the rhythm guitar layers on a bit of classic rock."

"Wow," Judy said as they pulled up to Grand Pangolin Arms. "You really narrowed that one down to the bone."

"Yeah," Nick exhaled. "Sorry you have to miss the rest of the party."

Judy climbed out of the car. "Pull it up on your phone tomorrow morning and I'll give it a listen."

"Deal," Nick smiled at her as she closed the door and walked to the entrance of Pangolin Arms. She heard him driving away as she entered the lobby, where Dharma took notice of her.

"Ah, Judy!" The armadillo approached her. "Late night at the station, I see."

"Yeah," Judy sighed, exhausted. "Yeah, unfortunately."

"What happened? Did you steal a paper clip or something?"

Judy really didn't want to discuss it.

"I'm sure you'll hear about it on the news tomorrow morning," she opted. "Good night, Mrs. Armadillo."

As she trudged to her room, she heard the ancient landlady mutter, "I know the feeling, kid. Get some nice, good sleep."

Judy opened her apartment door. Same old desk, same old bed, same old window, same old peeling walls. "Home sweet home," she muttered sarcastically. She couldn't believe she had once looked at this place, thrown herself on the rickety old bed in relish, and cried out, "I love it!" Now this place wasn't even suited for the night howler apocalypse. She took her phone out of her pocket and plugged it into the charger on her wall. The digital clock read 11:26. She began to fiddle around with the buttons on top of it, setting the alarm to the latest she knew she could wake up and effectively be at the station. With the prospect of sleeping until 5:30 in her head, she undressed, put her pajamas on, and slid into her bed, hoping she could get some good rest knowing that the night howler was finally gone.

 _Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep!_

Judy flailed for the alarm. "Just stop already," she complained, half-awake and slamming her hand on whatever surface was beneath her.

 _Beep! Beep! Beep! Bee-_

"Yay," Judy mumbled. She had hit the button. The sun was far from up, creating the illusion of night; stars were still twinkling, and the moon was only just setting. She rubbed her eyes as she climbed out of bed and drew the blinds. And with that, she began her routine. It took her a few tries to get her pants on the right way, at one point even putting them on backwards.

Oops, she thought to herself when she realized she had done so. The zipper's back there.

She fumbled her phone, dropping it and hearing an impressive thunk. She picked it up and saw that she had missed a phone call from Nick (well, if his contact information was correct, his name was actually "Nicky" with three large red hearts after it). Aw, crap, she thought. He's gonna hate me. She unlocked the phone, hit the redial button, and waited for Nick to pick up his phone.

 _"Hey, look who slept in!"_ Nick said, sounding more cheerful than usual.

"Nick?" Judy was surprised; Nick normally woke up early, but he wasn't coherent until later. "What are you doing up so early?"  
 _"What are you talking about?"_

"I thought you were a stumbling mess before you got to work."

 _"Yeah, I normally am. But I'm not at work."_

"Wait, what?" Nick never skipped work. Come to think of it, he never skipped anything. "Why aren't you at work?"

 _"Higher-ups have been sent down to manage the entire Zootopia area. Every district, every cop station, everything."_

"W-why?" Judy stuttered in disbelief. "Don't they need as much of the force as they can?"

Nick chuckled. _"What the Sam Hill for, Carrots? Major threat's gone. WIthout a leader, a criminal organization falls into disarray, just like the old school playground bully and his posse. Like Gideon Grey."_

"Wait a minute," Judy said, suspicious. "I never told you that Gideon used to pick on me."

 _"I could tell you two had a past that wasn't too pretty,"_ Nick said. _"Your nose started twitching when you were talking to him, and I have my own special fox ways of telling when my kind is getting nervous: tail swishing, tooth licking, that kind of stuff. At any rate, aforementioned higher-ups have given us a mandatory rest day. Probably making sure that there aren't any leaks among the fellow badge-wearers. Almost called 'em badge-ers, but that would have been confusing."_

"So what are you doing on your day off?"

 _"Sitting on a park bench, looking at the lake and drinking a coffee. Which I now realize is a mistake."_

Judy chuckled. "Hate caffeine much?"

 _"Yeah, not my kinda drug."_

"And you're just sitting there watching the lake?"

 _"Don't knock it, Carrots, it's great."_ She heard him swallow something, probably coffee, then kept talking about what he was seeing. _"Man, I wish you could be here. It's amazing. The water's all nice and quiet, not a soul in sight...I mean, talk about your soul-searching moments. Right now…"_ Nick sighed contentedly. _"...serenity is mine."_ He finished the sentence with a tone of reverence, uttering them slowly as if savoring their sweet taste.

"Hmm," Judy crooned. "I'm glad someone's happy with what's going on in the world."

 _"Well, excepting the fact that the ex-chief's a criminal and Bellwether's still on the loose, I think there's a lot of stuff to be grateful for. I'm still breathing, I've got a job I love, I'm having a conversation with the most important animal in my life…"_

"You know how to turn on the charm, don't you?" Judy teased him.

 _"I won't deny a certain desire to show off my wit. Come on, foxes can never resist a chance to be smart. It's what we love to do. Sorry if that was a bit rude-sounding."_

"Not at all, Nick, I'm enjoying our discu-"

 _"Wait,"_ Nick said shortly. Judy heeded him. Silence ensued, a silence during which Judy wondered why Nick wasn't saying anything.

"What's going on, Nick?" she asked.

 _"I heard something in one of the bushes."_ Nick called out to whatever was watching him. _"Very funny, but you gotta be lighter on your toes to sneak up on me! Come on out, whoever you are!"_ He received nothing in response. _"I won't bite you. Just show yourself and we can get on with it!"_

Silence.

 _"Ah, probably just a college freshie sneaking a blunt or something."_ Nick sounded flippant about it.

"Are you _serious_ right now?" Judy asked disbelievingly. "You're a cop! Shouldn't you be arresting him or her?"

 _"Look, I've got a day off, Jude,"_ Nick said. _"S'far as I'm concerned, if a kid's having a little fun, why would I stop him? We're just gonna take his tail into the station in the future sometime. Besides, I can relate to early morning tokes...unfortunately. But I don't want to talk about it."_

"I'm not gonna press the topic," Judy assured him. "So how do I get to that park?"

" _Let's see...uh…You're at Pangolin Arms, right?"_

"Where else would I be?" Judy chuckled in reply.

 _"So...turn right out of the parking lot, take a left, keep going straight about two minutes, then get into the left turn lane, and I'm basically right there."_

Judy grabbed her keys. "On my way."

Nick chuckled. _"Of course you are. Any particular reason?"_ Judy could hear his voice dripping in false casualty. It sounded like he was trying to cover something up.

"I just want to see you," Judy said slowly. "Is that so strange?"

 _"Not at all,"_ Nick replied quickly. _"It's just that most animals would probably want to stay indoors for this kind of weather. Pretty cold, in relative terms. Probably some kinda record."_

"I'll be fine," Judy told him. "Just don't leave until I get there."

 _"So, what you're saying is that I can wait until you get here, and_ then _I can leave?"_

Judy rolled her eyes. "Hi-larious."

Damn. I should have brought my coat.

Judy stood there, shivering as she watched the back of Nick's head. She wanted to go over and talk to him, but at the same time, it was much colder than normal. Maybe Tundratown's biome generators were leaking into the Downtown District. Then again, maybe it was just real fog and she couldn't tell the difference. After all, she knew agriculture and police work, not meteorology and nephology. Decisions, decisions...What to do? Nick was sitting there, taking a few glances to the side now and then as if he was expecting her. She didn't want to disappoint. But holy _cow_ , was it cold. She could just go back to the apartment and have a nice cup of cocoa, go back to sleep, and then make up some excuse, like traffic. Yeah. Traffic sounded good. No. Not cool. Judy hated dishonesty, and the day she lied to Nick would be the day hell froze over. If she was going to be fully committed to having a healthy relationship with Nick, she couldn't deceive him a single time. Not once. Not ever. She took the first steps to his park bench, wondering how odd the whole thing looked; it wasn't every day a rabbit met a fox in a public area at 5:45 in the morning. As she got closer, she saw Nick's ear prick up, and he turned around. A smile plastered itself on his muzzle when he saw her. It was the kind of smile that looked like he couldn't have hidden it if he wanted to, the smile you wore only when something exceptionally fortunate happened. This only led Judy to ask the question, "What's going on?" What could put him in this good of a mood? He wasn't known for being ecstatic.

"Did you get plastic surgery or something?" she asked him, making a circle around her own mouth with her index finger.

Nick replied without losing his smile. "What? I can't be happy? We got a psychopath off the streets...and we busted the chief, too."

"It's just very off-putting to see-" Judy began.

"I know, to see me flashing my pearly whites on such a frostbitten, early morning. Let's just say there's a, uh...particular item whose exchange I wouldn't miss for the world."

Judy was lost. "What are you talking about, Nick?"

Nick quickly steered to a new topic. "Why don't you have a seat?" he asked. "You look a little cold."

"All right," Judy agreed, glad she had an excuse to sit next to him. The second she did, though, she regretted it. In retrospect, it probably wasn't the best idea to sit on a cold metal park bench. A jolt of frost shot through her tail up through her spine, and she immediately started shivering, her teeth chattering uncontrollably. Nick laughed sympathetically.

"Awwww," he said, grabbing her with one arm and nuzzling her cheek. "Here, warm up a bit, won't you?"

"Th-thanks," Judy said. Suddenly, she was thrown backwards in time, back to their infiltration of Mr. Big's residence.

 _"Here we go. Much nicer now, right? Oh, wait. Almost forgot. There. Is that better?"_

" _S-s-st-still k-ki-kinda c-c-c-cold."_

" _Oh, okay. Uh...What could we do to alleviate that? Tighter hug?"_

" _M-m-mhmm."_

Those feeling rushed back to her: fear, cold, comfort. But love for Nick overpowered each and every other emotion that scrambled for her attention. It sank her even deeper into his embrace, calmed her nerves, gave her a warm feeling inside. Was this what it felt like to love? She looked up at Nick, who was trying his best to do the same (though it seemed difficult for him due to the length of his muzzle).

"I know _that_ look," he chuckled. "That's the 'I'm having a magical moment' look."

Judy couldn't suppress a smile; Nick was spot on. It really _did_ feel magical. He took her grin as a hint.

"I knew it," he said, shifting his attention to the serene morning lake. "Well, don't let me ruin this whole special moment thing."

"Nick…" Judy couldn't help herself. "I _want_ you to be part of this 'whole special moment thing.'"

He squeezed her tighter. "Awww, thanks, Judy," he replied. "That's nice."

"Thanks, Nick," she replied. "So...why did you decide to come out here?"

"Same reason you did, Carrots," the fox replied enigmatically. "I knew that someone I cared about would be here."

"But I wasn't _here_ when you decided to drive over here, genius," Judy pointed out, giggling. "And what makes you think I care about you?"

"Ouch," Nick replied with a quick chortle. "That hurt. Well, I'll tell you why you care about me, Carrots. Reason one: you said you were on your way the instant I gave you directions, without me even asking if you wanted to come over and spend some alone time together. Reason two: It's freakishly cold out here due to a leak in Tundratown's biome generators (I'm sure you figured that out by now), and I'm willing to bet you that your cotton-tailed bunny butt was feeling the freeze the second you got started for your car. So you began to think that it would be better to just stay home and wait for work to call to you. You could force-feed me any lie you wanted to, as well, since I never saw you today. But you care enough to brave the cold and the dark and the loneliness to be with me."

"You know, I actually can't tell whether you're being serious or not," Judy replied, narrowing her eyes and smiling at him.

"That's the beaut of neut, Carrots."

"The what of what?"

"Beauty of neutrality," Nick explained. "Ambiguity. Sarcasm. Et cetera." He leaned closer and whispered, "But I assure you that I mean everything I'm saying."

Judy relaxed, once again melting back into Nick's arm. She had to admit that it felt nice, while still very cold and quiet, to be there. Not another living soul awake (besides Nick), a new day soon to dawn, a…

Dawn. Dawn. Hatred burned in Judy's heart as the otherwise harmless word branded an image of Bellwether's warped, insane eyes into her brain. She was out there. No doubt about it. And what she was doing now, Judy could only dream of. Concocting the new night howler, perhaps, or torturing some poor, innocent predator because she was evil beyond repair? The injustice rose in Judy's throat, and she could think of nothing else: not Nick, not the cold, not even the sun, whose light was just now poking through the clouds and creating a lovely yellow sunrise. Everything she could have enjoyed was drowned by fury and pain and sorrow and regret.

"Listen, Carrots…" she heard Nick casually start off his sentence, oblivious to her thoughts. But even his normally comforting voice ran into the cold, emotionless stone wall that had become Judy's heart, mind, and soul.

"Please, Nick," she said, getting up suddenly and never ceasing to look at the ground, more out of shame than anger. "I need to be alone."

"But, Judy -" Nick sounded much more serious, much more urgent.

"I-I'll see you at work, Nick," Judy replied, cutting him off. She didn't want to talk, to stop, to feel. Go to work. Do what you need to do, she told herself. She kept walking and she didn't look back, biting her lip and trying to keep her tears captive in her eyes. She didn't want to cry, but it was getting progressively harder and harder to do so. For just a moment, her mind had drifted away from Bellwether's face, but it snapped back just as quickly as it had gone away, and now sadness, as it so often was, became resentment. That devious wolf in sheep's clothing would get justice, and soon. And Judy would be there to see it happen. She threw open her car door in determination, and slammed it with equal force as she positioned herself behind the seat.

One glance.

The voice was back, and it wanted to see Nick. Just a tiny little peek, it said.

Fine, Judy said. One little peek can't hurt. He's probably just shrugged it off by now.

She looked up from the steering wheel and was met with the image of Nick on his park bench...but he was...was he holding something, or was he just looking at the seat? Judy tried to get a better look at what was going on, but was unsuccessful. Although...it was far away, but...Nick looked sad. Wait. Was that trembling? His lips looked like they were quivering. That was it; you didn't get that emotional staring at a cold park bench.

What do you think he's holding? the voice asked.

I have no idea. But it must be worth a lot to him to get that upset about it.

Judy started to put her key in the ignition, but then stopped, curious to see what Nick would do next. He started shaking his head, covering the end of his muzzle with his paw. His eyes closed tightly and his body jolted a few times. And Judy realized what was happening. Nick was crying…

But why? Didn't he always ensure that he seemed undaunted, unshaken to others and their actions? And besides, Judy had only said goodbye on a park bench at five in the morning. It was that big of a deal. She kept watching him, wondering why he was emotional out of the blue. Foxes weren't supposed to be easily offended or hurt. But it had to have been her fault, right? She _did_ interrupt him twice and leave him in the cold, after all. Nah, it was probably just the circumstance. If this had happened in the afternoon, he would have been fine with it. With the reassurance now seared firmly into her head, she backed out of her once-occupied parking space and drove off, telling herself the same thing over and over again. A new day had dawned, and she'd be damned if she was going to start it off with sadness. She knew the way to the ZPD from here, and that was where she was going to go.

Her driving, however, wasn't on her mind. In fact, nothing at all was on her mind. She was thinking about...nothing. Her mind was a blank canvas, and no matter how much she wished to paint upon it, she couldn't place a drop of thought on its blank white top. Cars. Horns. Animals. Buildings.

A knock on the window.

Judy jumped and looked around. "Who's there?" she asked, a little freaked out that someone was riding outside of a moving vehicle.

The muffled response was more than surprising. "Judy…?"

" _Ben?!"_ Judy saw the predator perched on the other side of the window, and she quickly rolled down the glass barrier. "What are you doing hitching a ride on the side of my car?"

The cheetah now looked much more concerned. "I'm just standing here, Judy. You're in ZPD parking. You've been sitting here staring straight ahead with your paws on the wheel for quite a while and I wondered if you were all right."

Judy racked her brain for whatever had happened...how long had it been since she had been conscious of what was going on? What was the time? How many people had seen her sitting there like a madwoman. "Yeah, m'fine," she told Clawhauser absentmindedly.

"Judy," Clawhauser said uncertainly. "Please come in and work."

Judy perked up as a joyous feeling shot through her. "Hey!" she said with a smile. "We have a day off!" She could go back to Nick, make up her abrupt departure by spending the entire day with him, end it with a nice romantic dinner, and-

"What? I didn't hear anything about that." Clawhauser had cocked his head.

"Yeah, Nick said the higher-ups were coming in and taking over for a few days!" Judy said excitedly.

"Judy," Clawhauser said uncertainly. "I'm not sure where Nick's getting his information, but as far as I know, no one's taking over. It's just a normal day at the ZPD. Gotta show the public we're not afraid or that we're super resilient or something like that, I guess. Sorry to rain on your proverbial parade, Judy."

Judy's face fell again. "But...but…"

A roar of engines approached. She looked for the source of the disturbance, but nothing presented itself immediately. Soon enough, however, news vans were pulling up and reporters were clambering out of them. "Oh, good Lord," she said with an annoyed edge to her voice. Sadness and disappointment were snuffed out, replaced by irritation and impatience. "Last time they asked me questions, I almost lost a friend."

"I'll take care of them if you'd like, Judy," Clawhauser offered.

Judy thought about taking him up on his offer. It would be nice to just go in, work on her work, and start the day without having to deal with the media. But at the same time, she knew Ben didn't do well under pressure. He might end up doing the same thing she had done: faltering and making an embarrassment out of herself and the department. Hell no, Hopps, she told herself. You're not letting him face that storm alone.

"No," she said as she opened the door and climbed out. "We'll do it together. We're both on the force, and we both saw what happened last night. They want the truth, we'll give them the truth." She walked towards the mass of media. As she got closer, she heard that most of the mass was here to discover the truth about what had happened last night.

"Officer, David Koalabell," a short little koala said into his microphone urgently, just as a reporter normally did. "We've heard rumors that Chief Bogo has superseded Dawn Bellwether as the animal behind the night howler conspiracy. Ma'am what can you tell us about these rumors?"

"Officer, over here!" a lioness called out. "How has the Zootopia Police Department responded to the possibility of an inside job?"

Judy was suddenly force-fed every microphone in sight. Each pair of truth-hungry eyes fixed upon her, every transparency-demanding mouth yelling at her for answers, yet she remained completely silent. She had a strategy. If she was silent, soon they would run out of questions. Clawhauser, however (who was right beside her), had different ideas. She felt his massive chin brush up against her as he whispered into her large ears.

"So…" he asked uncertainly. "Which one do we answer first?"

She slowly turned her head and met his brown eyes. He looked rather adorable, or so she thought. So innocent, so inexperienced, like a college freshman who was finally getting some action. She held up a single index finger to quiet him, and he understood, uttering not a single noise. She probably should have told him to look around and stare at each and every camera, in order to grab the attention of her audience. It was a little Nick trick her boyfriend had taught her ("Remember, Carrots, you always want eye contact. If you're looking around too much, you look nervous and your viewers lose all interest."). However, she let it slip by; she figured that one charismatic police officer would be enough for the both of them.

Soon, the mouths stopped moving, the eyes calmed, and the microphones were withdrawn from her mouth slightly. She took a deep breath and began.

"This is what we know so far. We received a tip from an anonymous source indicating that Chief Bogo had taken over the distribution of night howler after we had Dawn Bellwether in custody, who had been heading the project prior to her arrest. Upon hearing this information, Officer Nicholas Wilde and myself confronted and found night howler serum in a safe that belonged to the chief. It was the that the arrest was finally made. At this time, I have no details on the chief's whereabouts."

The clamoring began again.

"Could other police officers be following in his footsteps?"

"What else was in the safe?"

"Has Chief Bogo been communicating with Dawn Bellwether?"

Judy held up her paw for silence, and in mere seconds, she had it. It was a blissful feeling, to quiet the ruckus with one wave of her arm. "Who asked about the safe?" she asked.

A weasel raised his paw. "Over here, ma'am."

Judy turned to Clawhauser. "Ben, you wanna answer this one?"

Clawhauser's face morphed into one of intense disgust; she had forgotten that he wasn't too enthusiastic about dwelling on the chief's perverted cinematic library. She turned back to the cameras. "That's classified," she replied. "In regards to Bogo communicating with Dawn Bellwether, it's a possibility -"

What once was clamoring ceased to be clamoring; it was now a pure uproar. Flashing cameras and yelling voices overpowered her senses. She tried holding up her paw again, and while it did calm the throng of reporters, it took longer than her previous attempts to halt the madness. She felt she might be losing them. Wrap it up quick, Hopps, she told herself. "Here's how this works," she explained. "I answer one question at a time. If you have a question, pretend you're in grade school and raise your hand. I'll call on you, at which time your question will be answered."

She cleared her throat. "In regards to the issue of whether or not Chief Bogo has been communicating with Dawn Bellwether, Ms. Bellwether almost took the lives of Officer Wilde, myself, my family, and countless SWAT team members approximately two weeks ago. She attempted to manipulate Officer Wilde with night howler, but thanks to a buildup of taurine in Officer Wilde's system, he was able to resist and fend off the drug. Communication between both criminals is indeed possible."

Paws and hooves were raised as if the entire crowd was at a Gazelle concert. Judy picked an appendage at random. "Yes."

A tiger asked his question. "What is taurine and is it accessible for all of Zootopia to resist the drug?"

"Good question," Judy replied. "Taurine is something found in the energy drink Animal, although I'm no expert on the subject -"

"Taurine, also known as 2-aminoethanesulfonic acid, is an organic compound and can be found in body tissues. It is also used in energy drinks such as Animal, Pit Bull, and Foxstar. Yes, taurine is accessible to all of Zootopia's predators and prey, and it will negate all effects of the night howler serum; however, the effects of such a drastic change will leave the subjected predator winded."

Judy turned around, shocked that such a coherent answer could have come from Clawhauser. "Ben, how did you-"

Clawhauser shrugged. "I've always been fascinated by chemicals and stuff like that. That's why I eat so much, to see what different chemical combinations taste like. Call it guilty-pleasure research."

So that explains it, Judy thought. She turned back to the press. "What he said," she told them simply, oblivious to whatever his words meant..

Arms flew up again. Judy, again, picked at random. "Yes."

This time, a lynx asked her question. "Do we need fear the possibility of Dawn Bellwether or Chief Bogo rising to power again?"

"We do not believe so, but stranger things _have_ happened. That being said, we must remain vigilant and ensure that this threat is eliminated."

Next, Judy chose to hear from a baboon. "Where, exactly, is Officer Wilde? Could we ask him a few questions about his experience with Dawn Bellwether?"

Judy's face fell, and her atmosphere of confidence was shattered, replaced with guilt and sadness. She felt the tears working their way to her eyes and the knot in her chest growing larger, urging her to choke up. This couldn't happen. To lose her cool two interviews in a row...It would be unbearable. She sniffed in an attempt to steel her proverbial wool, shot her ears up straight to look more confident, and-

But it didn't work. She smoldered back down into her sensitive bunny self and turned her back on the cameras. She looked up at the towering ZPD, the only thing that might offer her refuge, refuge from the press, refuge from the world, refuge in which to shed rivers of pity-induced tears. The allure was too much to resist. Her emotions got the better of her. She turned back for only a few moments, and, with tears in her eyes, said in a broken voice…

"Try the park bench. He'll be there alone, despising me."

She pushed past Clawhauser, not even bothering to look at him.

"Judy-" She heard him stop himself. But she didn't care. She had turned away from her true love, and only now was the reality of her dilemma settling in. Burying her face in paws, she ran up the steps to the ZPD and shoulder-charged the door open, trying to get her frustrations out in one fell swoop. She brought her paws away from her eyes and saw that, to her relief, the ZPD was almost empty. Save herself, Wolford and McHorn, not a soul was in the building. Unfortunately, she had made such a dramatically noisy entry that the two officers were now quite interested in her.

"Hopps?" the rhinoceros asked, his normally hardened facial features now exuding concern. "What's wrong?"

Judy didn't want to talk about it; she opted to remain silent and continued on her path...wherever it might lead her.

"Officer Hopps," Wolford goaded in his British accent. "Whatever it is, telling someone _will_ make it better. Trust me."

Still Judy ignored them. She didn't want to talk. She wanted to go somewhere to stew in her sorrows.

"All right, then," McHorn said in an audible whisper. "Guess she doesn't want to talk about it."

"Well, mate, at least we have more time to work on all these bloody cases we missed while we were gone."

And with that the station fell silent. Still trying to keep her tears contained (for she had managed to keep her paws dry while she was hiding her face), she walked into the ladies' room. After all, she did need a bit of privacy. Morosely, she pushed open a stall door and hopped up on the closed lid. She sat there for a second, trying to fight back the urge to cry. Then...then it became too much. She brought her knees to her chin and sobbed silently into them, feeling as if happiness had abandoned her as mercilessly as she had abandoned Nick. Her phone buzzed, but she didn't care; all that mattered was that she had left Nick there without so much as a goodbye.

Who was the savage now?


	14. Machines Need Love, Too

Judy stared into the abyss that was her computer screen. All of her work was done, all of her tasks completed. Now she could go home and be in peace. Or could she? Nick was known to drop in at random times, and even if he didn't show up to chew her out for her abrupt departure from their park bench, her conscience had done a fine job of making it replay over and over in her head all the day long. Work was over, but home was far from appealing. She looked at the clock in the bottom right of the screen. Was it already seven? It seemed like she had confronted the news crews only an hour ago. But no; completely distracted, she had accomplished a day's work with no thought towards what she was doing. She had reached the epitome of guilt and self-pity. She looked down at her desk, sighed, and ran her tongue back and forth across the left side of her upper lip in thought. Still unsure of what to do, she logged out of her desktop, rose to her paws, and grabbed her things. But instead of walking out of the ZPD, she just stood there. Did she really want to go? After all, she _had_ just grabbed everything she needed to go back to her tiny apartment and turn in for the night, but the office felt like home. And it provided a haven from Nick, who was, apparently, taking a day off. Wait a minute. If he was taking the day off, then he probably wouldn't be too interested in what was going on in Judy's life right now. That meant that he wouldn't drop in unexpectedly unless it was really important. Great! She could rest and get a good night's sleep.

But wait. Nick was smart; if he wanted to do something, he'd make it seem like he'd never do that thing, and then, when his "victims" thought he wouldn't do it, he did it. In short, she knew he knew what her thought process was, and he knew she'd draw this conclusion so he could show up and contact her later, when she thought she was safe from him. And on top of that, would she even be able to sleep with him weighing on her conscience? Things seemed to get to her very easily, burrow into her being and make her that much more depressed. Maybe she could sleep at the station...but was that wise? Did she really want to risk it? With her luck, a breakout would happen the night she decided to spend the night at the ZPD. She sighed and weighed the options in her head. Either she could go home, maybe get a visit from Nick, mend a fence, and get her boyfriend back, or she could keep up her petty fears of dealing with an angry boyfriend (which she had expected to contend with at some point) and try to rest in a building full of criminals. Her rationalized comparisons did it: once she looked at the choices, the smart decision was clear. Home it was. She walked again through the office, saying "Good night" absentmindedly to every cubicle with a blue uniform in it and thinking of nothing, just tracking the ground as she walked. Her ears were met with the sounds of the ZPD's seven o'clock reception: paws carrying their owners to different destinations, Clawhauser talking to animals with questions, TVs each carrying different TV channels. Normally, these wouldn't have caught her attention, but tonight…

" _Hello, Zootopia. I'm Peter Moosebridge."_

" _And I'm Fabienne Growley. Today's top story: an officer from the ZPD warns the city that Dawn Bellwether, the original mastermind of the night howler attacks, could be on the rise."_

Judy looked up. What? No, she hadn't said that at all!

" _Judy Hopps of the ZPD, who foiled Bellwether's last scheme, was interviewed earlier this morning,"_ Moosebridge narrated. " _Here's what she had to say."_

A shot of the morning's interview followed, and Judy was the center of attention; Clawhauser stood idle in the background, looking around uncertainly.

" _In regards to Bogo communicating with Dawn Bellwether, it's a possibility -"_

The scene changed, and Growley began to speak.

" _Night howler, a potent drug, contains a chemical that turns any animal savage, predator or otherwise. The night howler first became a threat to Zootopia…"_

But Judy wasn't listening anymore. They had twisted her words and used them against her. Why did they want to make things sound worse than they actually were? Didn't the city have enough to worry about? But it looked like the real deal, and Judy looked like a doomsayer. Great. Just what she needed. A new layer of woe was added to her mind, and she now trudged through the room in a zombie-like trance: not speaking to anyone, refusing to acknowledge the existence of any other animal. She halfheartedly pushed the front doors open, not paying attention to where she was going.

Thump! Judy stumbled down the steps in a drawn-out fall that was always halfway between losing hitting the ground and recovering. It seemed to go on forever. Finally, she slammed her paws on even footing a few times and got herself back into a standing position. The excitement still running through her, she was temporarily shaken out of her stupor. She looked around. Not much out of the ordinary, however. Traffic was normal, and for the most part, everyone was still at the ZPD. She got into her car and put the key in the ignition. She was about to turn the key and start the car, but something stopped her. Something that said, "You need to take a breather. Just sit in the car for a while, then you can go home when you've got your wits about you."

Judy obeyed the voice. She took her paw off the key and sat there. She breathed methodically, being very mindful of her method. In, out. Three seconds inhaling, three seconds exhaling. She closed her eyes and thought of nothing but bliss. In, out. In, out. She opened her eyes. Everything was fine. She would just go home, eat something quick, and go to bed. If she didn't get rest soon, she would suffer a nervous wreck. Judy turned over the ignition, pulled out of the parking lot, and set her sights on home, where she might be able to make tomorrow turn out better than today.

* * *

 _God...freaking...screw it._

An hour and a half of tossing and turning saw Judy still lying there awake, eyes wide open. All she could see was Nick. There he was on the bench, looking at his paw and letting himself cry freely. It made her despise herself. She looked up at the ceiling, frowning and irritated. She just couldn't get to sleep, all because she freaked out on Nick and left him there. No amount of "It's over, let it go" could ease her mind or calm her body. The guilt was unbearable. Nick deserves better, she told herself. Suddenly, the guilt turned into radical self-loathing. Everything was her fault: Bellwether, Nick, the chief...if she hadn't slacked so much, she could have gotten something done. Maybe she needed to stop thinking about herself and focus on others. But how? She hated herself, and that was all she could think about.

Judy grabbed her phone; it was the one thing that could ease the pain. She unlocked it, hit the phone app, and dialed Nick's number. She knew he would have her caller ID, but she hoped that he would answer it. With each ring, however, that hope shrank. It rang, and it rang again, and it rang again.

" _Hello."_

Thank God! It was Nick! "Nick, I'm so sorry I-"

" _Congratulations. You've been fooled into talking to a machine. This is my voicemail. There's gonna be a beep in about ten seconds. At that point, you leave your message and I listen to it. Probably three days from now. Depends on how busy I am. Here we go. Beep in five, four, three, two…"_

One, Judy counted in her head. A beep sounded just when she thought "Zero." She cleared her throat and started her message.

"Look, Nick, it's Judy." She sighed. "Listen, I, uh-"

The other end of the line bumped. Nick had picked up! Judy wasted no time in apologizing to him. "Nick, I'm so sorry. Please forgive me! Whatever I have to do, I'll make it up to you!"

But something was wrong. Nick remained silent. Judy waited for just a few seconds, hoping he would break the silence. Nothing happened. "Nick," she urged him to talk to her. "Please. I know what I did was stupid, and I suppose I deserve the silent treatment, but I'm begging you, please just talk to me. Whatever you feel like saying, just get it off your chest now. We can talk about this."

Still silence ensued. Judy was no longer worried; she was desperate. "Please, Nick. Just talk to me. We have to do this sometime. Why not now?"

And then, solely due to her big ears, Judy heard a noise. It was as faint as a butterfly's wing beating, but she could hear it. A moan. A weak moan. Her heart rate spiked and she was gripped with apprehension. "Nick? Is that you?"

" _Nick can't come to the phone right now, Judy."_

Bellwether. Chills shot up and down Judy's spine. "What did you do to him?" she demanded.

" _Oh, calm down, would you? He's not in mortal peril...not yet, anyway."_

"Not yet?! What do you mean?"

" _Oh, Judy. Poor, naive Judy. What do you think I've done?"_

"If you hurt him in any way…" Judy started. "So help me, if you touch one tuft of his fur, I will tear you apart!"

" _Blah, blah, blah, you bunnies love talking out your problems. Unfortunately, this particular problem can't be talked out. Say hello to Judy, Nick."_

The phone rustled. " _J...Judy…"_ came Nick's wheezing voice, practically begging for rescue.

" _Well, now, our mutual fox friend has found himself in a bind, hasn't he?"_

"What's happening?! You sick, twisted-"

" _No naughty words, Judy, we don't want to get off on the wrong paw...again."_ Bellwether cackled.

"What do you want?" Judy asked in desperation.

" _Are you familiar with the chemical...theobromine?"_

Judy gasped. Nick! "You didn't-"

" _Were you about to say 'force feed him chocolate?' Because if you were, you're dead wrong."_ Something rustled on the other end. " _Turns out your boyfriend isn't as scared of needles as I thought he would. Considering his position, he was very calm when I injected the syringe into his bloodstream."_

"NO!" Judy cried out. "Nick!"

" _It's nothing lethal. Well, at least, it won't be lethal for the next…"_ A brief pause ensued. " _...hour or so. Now, there_ is _a way to get your furball out of an early casket."_

"What is it? I'll do whatever you want!" Judy said, not caring about what "doing whatever Bellwether wanted" might entail.

" _Well, I have the antidote, so I guess you_ do _have to do whatever I want you to. The natural history museum. Now. Come alone, unarmed. Don't do it for me, Judy. Do it for Nick."_

Bellwether hung up. Judy waited for only a moment, standing there in fear, still trying to fully grasp the situation. And then her mind was clear. She knew what she needed to do. She dashed through her door, leaving it ajar, and stopped for nothing. She could risk no distractions, not with Nick in mortal peril…

 _Wham!_ She had neglected to watch where she was going and plowed into a rather large hippopotamus. Her paws slipped out from under her as she fell flat on her cottontail.

"Hey, watch it, rabbit!" the corpulent animal protested.

"Sorrysorrysorry!" Judy repeated herself quickly, trying to avoid an argument. "I'mjusttrying tosavemyboyfriend'slife!" She got right back up on her paws and sped past the hippo, who called after her. "Wait, _what_?"

But nothing could stop her now; her eyes forward, she now saw any obstacles in the way and avoided them with ease. She hopped over tables, dodged around residents, and slid underneath particularly big animals. And there was the door. Putting on a burst of speed, Judy got ready to breach it cop-style, sticking her shoulder out at it. One step, two steps, three steps, four steps, leap! She used her powerful bunny leg muscles to launch herself towards the door, bracing herself for the impact. It tumbled open as she slammed into it, but gave her quite the jolt. She hit the pavement with uneven paws and, knowing she was going to tumble, tucked her head into her chest and rolled over her shoulder, escaping major injury by taking the brunt of the landing with her scapula. She sprang back up and ran to her car, taking her keys out of her pocket as she drew nearer. As she tried to open the door, she fumbled the keys and dropped them onto the asphalt. Not a second had passed, however, before she had picked them back up and shoved them into the lock on the door, accessing her car. The process of putting on her seatbelt and closing the door was but a flurry of movement even to her, and she fumbled the keys again as she turned the car over. Nick wasn't going to die because of her…

Of that she was certain.

* * *

The natural history museum. It was still undergoing repairs, and it looked even more frightening when there was barely light outside. She looked around. Bellwether could be anywhere, lying in wait to attack her at any moment with anything. Nothing looked out of the ordinary, nothing had changed from last time, as far as she could tell. She wondered if the tusk she cut her knee on was still stained with her blood, if those blueberries that fell out of Nick's handkerchief were still there. And then there was the pit. Judy could see it. The lights were still on. So many memories. So many terrible memories. She knew Nick had been acting, but she hadn't been immune to the nightmares, the possibilities of how it could have gone wrong, what would have happened if Nick hadn't been shot by a blueberry. She approached, expecting to see Bellwether there, standing over Nick and waiting for the rabbit to show. But as she peered over the exhibit, she saw nothing. Just what had been there last time. What was wrong? Had Bellwether just been playing her, laughing at her hopes to save Nick, when there was really no chance to keep the fox alive?

Movement. Behind a statue. Bellwether. And Nick. The sheep was dragging him along behind her, and he was limp, barely able to groan due to the agony he was no doubt experiencing. It wrenched Judy's heart, and she momentarily began to melt with sympathy. But then she caught herself. Bellwether was there. And Judy was itching for revenge. She laid her ears back and tried to threaten the sheep.

Bellwether merely waved her left hoof. "Ah, ah, ah. Careful." She gestured to Nick. "I hold his life in my hooves. Quite literally, actually, now that I think about it."

"What do you want, Bellwether?" Judy asked. "I'll do anything, just leave him alone!"

"Anything?" Bellwether asked, raising an eyebrow. She looked at Nick, and with no warning, dragged him to the edge of the pit. Judy maintained eye contact with the sheep. What was she going to do?

"Fetch," Bellwether said. She pulled Nick's limp body to the point of nearly falling into the pit, and kicked him in Judy's direction, watching him with an evil smile on her face as he fell to the ground, hitting it and rolling like a ragdoll down into the fake grass.

"NO!" Judy shouted. She didn't even hesitate; she jumped down into the exhibit and ran to Nick, turning him over on his back and assuring him. "It's okay, Nick," she said frantically, stroking his head with her paw. "It's okay, it's okay. You'll be okay…"

"C.." Nick choked, fresh blood trickling from his mouth. "Carrots…"

"Are you two quite done?" Bellwether asked.

Rage overtook Judy yet again. "What...do...you.. _want_?!" she demanded.

"To talk," Bellwether said simply.

"And why would I want to talk to _you_?"

Bellwether held up what looked like a syringe. "I have the antidote. Honestly, Judy, did you forget _every_ thing we talked about on the phone? Or do you just hate me that much?"

Judy's face fell in relief.

"Got your attention now, don't I?" Bellwether smiled. "If you have a nice, civil conversation with me, I'll give you the means to save your one true love." She giggled cutely. "Isn't this _fun?_ It's just like some kind of covert operations deal! Well, now that we can talk, I have something of importance to say."

"What?" Judy asked.

"As you know, our dear old chief of police was arrested yesterday for spearheading the night howler conspiracy. They found the drug in his safe, and he's currently waiting to show up in court for the crime of the century."

"Keep going," Judy said, wanting Bellwether to shut up so she would give Nick his life back.

"Well, there are some things a criminal can know that a cop can't. For instance, did you know that your landlady has been arrested for possession of marijuana...twice? YOu should arrest her, you know, she's a dealer-"

"If there's a point, get to it," Judy spat.

Bellwether began walking around the perimeter of the enclosure. "Well, I happen to know a little bit more about the conspiracy than...probably everyone else. Not only am I a criminal, but I'm also the original ringleader of the night howler distribution. And you know, if you're in charge of something for even the littlest bit of time, you keep yourself in the loop."

"So what do you want to tell me? Get to the _god_ damn point!"

Bellwether made a face of false pity. "Oh, Judy. Oh, Judy, Judy, Judy." She began to mimic a civilian being placed under arrest. "'No! It wasn't me! It was the one-armed man!'"

The gears inside Judy's head began to turn. "Wait. What are you trying to tell me?"

Bellwether became serious again. "You have the wrong guy, Judy. Bogo's clean."

The claim denied all logical reasoning. "That can't be," Judy protested. "We found the stuff in his personal safe. It was hidden behind a panel in the wall, behind a desk, in Bogo's office. How could he not have at least some kind of influence in the night howler distribution?"

"Wouldn't _you_ like to know?"

"Yeah, I _would_ , Bellwether. That's why I asked."

"He hasn't done a single thing against the law in his entire life. He hasn't rolled a blunt. He hasn't gotten a parking ticket. Hell, he hasn't even done so much as steal a pen from work. Him, the mastermind behind a conspiracy to bring Zootopia to its knees? Ha! Gazelle would be a more likely candidate!" Bellwether glanced at the ground. "Actually, that's kind of true. Have you heard what she does with those background dancers of hers when she's offstage? Horizontally challenged, that animal is _not_."

"Well, if it isn't the chief, then who _is_ it?" Judy asked in desperation.

"Well, who was the one who initially told you that it was the chief?"

"Duke Weaselton," Judy said. "But what does that-"

"Did Duke tell you that the chief had a safe with night howler in it?"

Judy had barely heard the question; she had gone back to helping Nick, holding his hand in an attempt to comfort him. "Yes, he did," she replied.

"How would he have known about the safe?"

"He said he knew the chief had a secret stash of night howler somewhere in his office, so he searched the place when the chief was out to lunch."

"See, the problem with that story, Judy, is that the chief is super security-conscious. His office is so locked up when he's not there that you might as well be trying to break into a military base. No, Duke knew that the safe was there for a different reason. He planted the evidence in the chief's safe."

And then Judy understood what Bellwether was saying. "You mean Duke's behind it all?"

Bellwether cackled again. "Are you kidding me? Duke's too disorganized to even manage his _fur_ , let alone a conspiracy. No, another perp lies in the shadows. And they're the one you least expect."

"The one I least expect?" Judy asked disbelievingly. "Are you _kidding_ me? I don't even know who that is! How am I supposed to pick-and-choose who I think is the most unlikely to be a criminal? And another thing. Why are you telling me all of this? The last time we met, you tried to have Nick -" She stopped. Now that she looked at Nick, she saw, to her dismay, that he was still.

"NICK!" She ran to him and took his pulse. Alive, but barely.

"Uh oh, Judy, looks like the theobromine's working its magic." Bellwether had an evil smile on her face, one that infuriated Judy even more. "You'll have to keep talking if you want him to survive. By my math, you have…" She looked at her naked wrist. "No time left. _He_ has no time left, that is."

Judy was growing very desperate. "Bellwether, _please_ ," she begged. "I'll talk with you all you want. Just give me the antidote first."

"Oooh," Bellwether inhaled. "You know, I'd love to, Judy, but I have trust issues with cops. Kinda comes with the job, I guess. One of my occupational hazards."

Judy got even more desperate. "Listen, whatever you want to talk about, I'll talk about. But please don't let Nick die, please."

Bellwether pursed her lips. "Hmmm. I don't know. I mean, he _is_ a fox. And you know the history between foxes and sheep. Actually, I'm surprised _you_ don't turn on him the second you get the chance."

But Judy wasn't listening; Nick was the only thing on her mind. She cradled his head in her hands and started trying to revive him. "Come on, Nick, please. Wake up. Come on…" She began CPR.

"That's cute, Judy, but this antidote is the only way to save him," Bellwether said in a singsong voice. "And let me tell you this, Judy. If you care about him - _really_ care about him - you'll stop groveling and start talking."

Judy heard her; she slowly raised her head and turned to Bellwether, who was gazing down on her like a hawk watching its prey.

"There we go, that's what I had in mind when we planned this! And you know what...for being such a team player…" Bellwether rummaged around in her purse for something, pulling out...what was it? She raised her hand over her head and hurled it at Judy, but the throw was never going to make it. Instinctively, Judy dove; she didn't care what it was, but if it was something beneficial, she couldn't take the chance that it might be ruined. As her paw wrapped around it, she felt its shape: thin. Her spirits raised, she opened her paw and looked at it. The syringe!

"The antidote," Bellwether explained. "Don't use it all in one place. Actually, now that I think about it, you _have_ to use it in one place, right? Otherwise, your boyfriend's done for."

Judy took the protective cover off the sharp needle, frantically grabbing Nick's arm. Once she got a hold of it, she gently pushed it into his vein, injecting the lifesaving liquid into his bloodstream. She lay back on her haunches and waited for something to happen. Slowly, Nick's eyes fluttered halfway open, and he moaned weakly, looking around.

Relief flooded Judy's body. She threw her arms around him and kissed the side of his neck. "Oh, thank God," she whispered, and she began to cry.

"Now, I hope you haven't forgotten your promise, Judy," Bellwether called to her.

Judy turned around with tears streaking through her fur.

"Okay," she whispered. "Fine. What do you want to tell me?"

"Actually, I believe you had a question for me," Bellwether said. "Something about...why I'm telling you this?"  
"Yeah," Judy confirmed, choking on a sob of joy. "Why are you telling me this? Don't you want Zootopia to fall into mere fragments of a ruined civilization?"

"Well, of course I do, Judy," Bellwether replied. "But I don't like competition. It's so annoying. Oh, so many times did I encounter it when I was first rising to the top. Of course, for the right price, a certain type of someone would get rid of it. Enter Doug's crew. They were just ecstatic to get the chance to work with me...probably because they liked me. Rams and sheep get along quite well. Anyway, they helped me kill off everyone who tried to kill me or shut me out of the race. That's how I got to where I am today. Well, how I got to where I was before you came along and ruined everything. Thanks for that, by the way.

"Bottom line: I'm not behind all the bad stuff that's going on, and I want to be. So you're kind of like discount hitmen...eh, hitman and hitwoman, I suppose would be more accurate."

"What's my motivation?" Judy asked her "Even if we do this, you'll just fill in the gap."

"Your motivation." Bellwether mused. "How about this: you arrest the one in charge of the night howler distribution, or the both of you will be treated to a death so excruciating that Nick will beg me for another round of theobromine. And I'll oblige. I've gotten Doug to get me some night howler with theo in it. That means that not only does he die slowly, but he tears you apart as well. It's just like I had planned back at your folks' home! Isn't this _fun_?" She walked around the enclosure, towards the back exit. "See you around, Judy! Don't take too long with the arrest!"

"Wait a minute, Bellwether!" Judy cried out. "You know who it is, can't you just tell me?"

Bellwether stared at her. "Of course not! That would take all the fun out of the mystery!" She waved a hoof goodbye. "So long, Judy!"

Judy focused her attention on Nick, whose eyes were open and darting around, but was barely moving.

"Oh, God, Nick, are you okay?" she asked him.

"Mmmhh," Nick mumbled incoherently.

Judy pulled out her phone and dialed 911. "We've got to make sure you're okay," she said hurriedly.

" _911, what's your emergency?"_

"Thank God," Judy said quickly. "I have an adult male fox in the Natural History Museum who's been injected with a lethal dose of theobromine. I've given him an antidote, but I don't know if it's enough." Her voice broke as she finished the last phrase of her sentence. "Please...he needs help." She closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

" _Okay, we're sending a unit. How much theobromine has he had?"_

"I-I don't know. It got pumped right into his system."

" _I'm sorry. Say again?"_

"The-the theobromine was introduced to his bloodstream directly, no ingestion. I did the same with the antidote."

" _Okay, thank you. The medics are on their way."_

Judy hung up and sighed solemnly, putting the phone back in her pocket.

"Mmmhh...Carrots."

She hurried to Nick's side.

"Yeah, Nick, what is it?"

Nick looked at her and groaned in pain. "They...might be...too late." He could barely talk, but Judy could still hear him. That didn't mean she liked what he had to say.

"No, don't talk like that," Judy said, getting choked up again. She clasped his paw in her own, cradling it in a feeling of deep passion and love. "You can't die. You just can't."

Nick nodded, but only just. "Yeah...yeah...I...can. And I might...We'll...have to...see."

"No. Not yet, you can't." Judy closed her eyes, lowering her head and letting her ears lie back. "Please. Please don't go..."

And as she lay there, comforting the dying fox, she heard the sharp wail of a siren pierce the sleeping city.

There was hope yet.


	15. One Good Story Deserves Another

"Come on, Judy, you have to eat _some_ thing."

"I'm not hungry."

Four times now her father had pressured her to leave Nick's side, and four times her answer had been the same, flimsy and repetitive though the argument might be. Truth was, she actually _did_ want something to tide her over, but she felt that if she did, she would miss Nick's awakening. When Nick had first been admitted to the hospital, Judy had made a promise to both herself and her partner: she wouldn't abandon him until he woke up. Three days later, though, and it had become extremely difficult to stick to her promise. But she did it anyway. She always kept her promises. It was who she was; it was her identity. She squeezed Nick's paw lovingly, hopefully. "Wake up, Nick," she had pleaded with him countless times. The copious kisses she had left on his fuzzy forehead did nothing to alleviate his condition, and each time she traced her finger from his nose to his brow, the action comforted her more than it did him; after all, according to the doctors, Nick could see, feel, hear nothing. And yet, they said the smallest snippet of a familiar sound or scent might wake him. Her voice had done nothing to help, though, and that had made her very discouraged. Still, Judy refused to accept defeat. She had been trying different sounds she knew he would recognize; she had brought in at least seven different animals, all from different encounters. She had thrown old friends at him, old enemies at him, even random police officers from the station. Nick just wanted to play hardball. Her father's hands made their way to her shoulders, massaging them.

"Judy, honey, he's not going to wake up any time soon," her father said gently. "Can you please just stand up and walk with me to go get some food?"

Judy took a deep breath; how to explain this. "Dad...you know that feeling you get when you love someone, and it's like you can feel what they feel all the time?"

Her father fell silent behind her, but only for the smallest of moments. "Yes, a little bit, Judy. I like to think your mom and I share that bond, as a matter of fact."

Judy looked back at him. "Well, I can sense it, Dad. He's gonna wake up sometime soon. And if I'm not here for him when he first opens his eyes, I'll never forgive myself."

Her father's eyes were full of understanding, but she got the feeling that her father was thinking along the lines of "poor Judy, she doesn't know what's good or her." At this point, she honestly didn't even care. All she wanted was to see Nick's eyes again. But how? What could she do? What did he like the most? What was a familiar sound, a familiar smell...Wait. Smell. Nick was a fox, ergo he had a great sense of smell. What did he like eating? Blueberries! Of course! All they needed were some of her father's blue- But then, just as quickly as her hopes had soared, they were dashed against the rocks. Blueberries didn't have a smell, unless - unless they had been ground up! But...But how many blueberries would she need? It's not like she had ground up blueberries one at a time until she knew they gave up their scent. So short of blueberries, what else did she have? The only other thing she knew Nick loved was Animal. It was a long shot, but if she could somehow get the liquid under his nose, maybe it would work.

"Uh, Dad?" she asked him, shifting her eyes to Nick.

"Yeah, hon?"

"You think you could bring me an Animal from one of the vending machines?"

She heard her father laugh a short laugh. "What, are you a metalhead now, Jude?"

Judy shook her head. "No, I just...have an idea of how to get Nick back up and running."

"All right," her father said uncertainly, "but I really think there are better ways to go about it." Judy heard him walking out the door, closing it behind him. She sighed, hoping her father knew what he was doing. Then the door opened again.

"Jude?" her father asked. "Where's the vending machine again?"

Since she knew he couldn't see her face, Judy took the opportunity to roll her eyes. "End of the hall, the large rectangle thingy with all the little snack things in it."

"Well, I know _what_ it is, Jude," her father chuckled. "Just didn't know where it was." The door closed again. She fiddled around with his limp hand, wondering just how quickly it would be moving around...or if it would ever move again. No. She didn't want to think about that. He was going to recover. He had to. "Hang in there, Nick. You've got to pull through. For me. For us…"

Her father opened the door. "Got change for a five?"

Judy rolled her eyes again and fished out five 1-dollar bills. She folded them in half and gave them to her father, exchanging them for his one piece of legal tender, and waved to him as he closed the door again.

"Be right back," he said before he closed the door. Judy sighed and pulled out her phone. She had gotten a text from her mother:

 _Hi honey! How are you and Dad doing?_

Judy opened her messages and began to reply. _We're doing fine,_ she typed. _Might have a way to wake up Nick._

Her mother replied quickly. _That's great! What is it?_

 _We're trying to expose him to a familiar smell. Hopefully he'll wake up._

 _What is it?_

 _Animal._

 _What species?_

 _No, Ma. I mean like the drink, Animal. You know, the one in the black can with a green "A" on it?_

 _No._

 _Well, we're going to try and hold some of it under his nose and see if direct exposure will wake him up._

 _Well, let me know how that goes._

 _I will, Ma._

 _Love you._

 _Love you, too._

The door opened again. Judy turned around to see her father holding not a can of Animal, but a can of Pit Bull.

"Wrong one, Dad," she replied in the voice of a stereotypical teenage daughter.

Her father looked at the can. "What? Oh!" he said, his eyes widening in realization. "Whoops. Well, at least they're two bucks a pop." He backed out of the door.

"Black with a green 'A' on it!" Judy called out as her father went back to the vending machine. Nick was still as ever; his chest barely rose, his face never twitched. Judy gazed at him. She had no surefire way of waking him up, and there was no guarantee that anything she did would stir him…

For the first time in her life, she was hopeless.

 _Ding!_ Her phone snapped at her.

 _ **Mom**_ _now_

 _How'd it go?_

Judy unlocked her phone. _Dad got the wrong drink,_ she wrote. _He grabbed a Pit Bull, not an Animal._

 _Oh. Whoops! That sounds like your father all right :p_

 _How are you guys doing?_

 _Oh, we're fine. I mean, the whole house burning down thing is a huge problem, but we've managed so far._

 _Look, Mom, I know I haven't been super supportive with the whole rebuilding thing lately, and I'm sorry._

 _Aw, don't worry about it, honey. We'll have the house back in a couple of months, so...yay!_

 _Great! Let me know if there's anything I can do to help._

 _You just focus on your job, Judy. We're really proud of you!_

 _Thanks, Mom._

Her father opened the door again, this time with the right drink. _Dad just got back,_ she texted. _I'll let you know what happens._ She put her phone away.

"Got the one he needs, Jude," her father said. "Now, what do we do?"

"Can I have the drink?" she asked, holding out her paw.

"Sure." Her father handed her the can. It was a little heavier than she expected, but she was able to hold it without much difficulty. She hooked her claw through the pop top and pulled. The can depressurized; she felt it relax slightly in her paw, and it made a hissing noise, some of the carbonation making an attempt to escape. She smelled the dark-golden liquid. Sweet, with just the right mixture of buzz and attack. Now curiosity got the best of her. She put the lip of the can between her own and tilted it, sending the formula down her throat. It was a kick in the face, a wake-up call. The carbonation that hadn't been lucky enough to escape bombarded her mouth like Pop Rocks. Her taste buds picked up sweet, and nothing else. Quickly, she swallowed, and a shiver ran through her spine. It was a good shiver, though: one that was usually followed by a much-anticipated event, like a concert or sports game. She shook her head to get herself back on target.

"Verdict?" her father asked.

Judy looked at the can contemplatively. "It's hardly as addicting as they make it out to be, and it's actually kind of good. Course, everything in moderation, and this isn't something you want to be drinking regularly anyway."

"Did Nick drink this often?"

"No, I don't think so. He drank it sometimes in college, and he downed a can when we were trying to press Gideon for information."

"Gideon? You mean Gideon Grey?"

"Yeah, we were trying to locate a suspect and Gideon was a potential acquaintance of this guy. This was right before the attack on the house, so he didn't finish it, I don't think. Makes me wonder what's happened to it by now."

"Gideon probably drank it. Anyway, Jude, you want to try and wake the beast?"

"He's not a beast, Dad," Judy said. "He's a fox. He's _my_ fox." She tilted the can so that it was perfectly placed underneath Nick's nose. "You know," she started, "it's a good thing I drank some of it, I think, because otherwise I'd probably have spilled some on him by now. And if there's anything Nick hates, it's sticky fur."

"What about flaming fur? Hard to hate something if your head's on fire."

Judy gave her dad a mock "what's wrong with you?" look.

Her father shrugged in protest. "Just sayin'."

Judy turned back to Nick. Nothing yet. She tried waving the can back and forth past his nose, but still Nick remained stagnant. She tried shoving the open can as close to his nose as possible, even wetting her paw and dabbing the liquid on his nose. Nick did nothing. He was still absolutely unmoving. Judy lowered the can from his snout with a sigh, putting it on the bedside table.

"At least if he wakes up, he can drink it," she said, turning to her father. "Thanks for being here anyway, Dad."

Somehow, she knew her father could sense her dejection, and he pulled her closer in a nice, warm hug.

"Come on, now, Jude," he said, squeezing her lovingly. "He'll wake up."

The door opened. Judy couldn't see who it was, but she heard a voice.

"Oh, hello, Mr. Hopps."

Her father broke off the hug and turned around; Judy could now see a zebra in doctors' clothes with a smile on her face.

"I'm Doctor Candace," she introduced herself, holding out her hoof. "I'm taking care of Mr. Wilde while he recovers."

Judy's father shook the doctor's hand. "Well, it's nice to meet you, Dr. Candace. I'm Stu. Stu Hopps. This is my daughter, Judy."

"Yes, I'm familiar with your daughter." She turned to Judy. "Way to show the world that we prey can be tough, too."

Judy hoped no one could see her blushing underneath her fur. "Oh, it's nothing. Really. Doctors are the ones who deserve all the credit." She cast an uncertain glance at Nick. "So how's he doing?"

Candace lowered her head for only a moment. "Yes, Mr. Wilde's condition is a rare one, indeed. Uh, how did he get that theobromine into his system, again?"

Judy didn't want to lie, but she didn't want to tell the truth either; after her most recent interview, she would hate for Zootopia to become downright paranoid. "Criminal got him, ended up administering an entire syringe of the stuff into his bloodstream."

"Okay, then," Candace said, apparently only mildly surprised. "I can see why someone might want to bump off a police officer. Though...why they went through all the trouble to get their hands on such an illegal substance, I'm not sure. At any rate, Mr. Wilde is doing quite well, considering what's happened to him. His condition hasn't worsened, and there _is_ hope for recovery. I see you've taken it upon yourself to try and revive him."

"How could you tell?"

Candace pointed a hoof at the Animal can. "Neither of you strike me as the 'energy-drink' type. Especially since rabbits have such rapid heartbeats. I've had a couple of patients who drank that kind of beverage and then had the living daylights scared out of them. Not pretty. Not pretty at all. But we're digressing. Mr. Wilde is clearly unresponsive to your efforts; however, it's still early on, so... he might wake up yet."

"I hope so," Judy's father said, putting his hand on her shoulder. "It's the only way we'll get Jude outta here!"

"Well, hopefully Ms. Hopps will be able to leave soon," Candace smiled as she made her way to Nick, who had been lying still as a doormat the entire time. She checked his pulse. "Well, he's still breathing," she said. She opened his eyelids. "Nobody's home...yet. If you're as persistent as I've heard, Ms. Hopps, he'll be up and running again in no time." The doctor finished up her tests and turned back to Judy and her father.

"No change, which is good news and bad news. He hasn't gotten better, but at the very least, he isn't slipping away." Candace opened the door. "I'm sure we'll see each other again soon, Ms. Hopps." She closed the door behind her.

"Yeah, soon," Judy muttered, a little saddened. Nick still wasn't getting better. It had been three days, three freaking days since he had been injected. How could he just lie there, doing nothing? Normally, he'd be bored out of his mind if he stayed in bed for more than ten minutes, and now he finds the time to lay back and stay in the same place for nearly seventy-two hours. What was happening in his head? What was he seeing? What was he thinking? There he was, right there in front of her, touchable, but unreachable. Nothing she could do would make him aware of her presence. For now, he was as good as dead.

As good as dead...The words hit Judy with no mercy. It was like Nick was already gone. He had always seemed so lively, so...animated. He could hardly let a good opportunity slip by him. She knew what she needed to do. She turned to her father and said, "Dad, I need a moment."

"Of course, Judy," her father replied. "See you around, I guess." He seemed to hesitate a bit, then gave her another hug. "Aww, don't be so hard on yourself, hon. You've done all you can."

"Thanks, Dad," she replied halfheartedly, knowing that she really could be doing more. She waited until she could no longer hear her father's footsteps behind her, until the door opened and closed. Then she took a deep breath, looked at Nick, and began to speak to him, even though she knew it was of no use.

"Ni-"

 _Ding!_

Judy sighed; would she ever be able to have a one-on-one with her unconscious boyfriend? She whipped out her phone and saw another text from her mother.

 _Any luck?_

Judy swiped her phone open and replied. _No._

 _I'm sorry, honey. Maybe next time._

 _I doubt it. If Nick had any chance of waking up due to encouragement, he'd have responded to our efforts by now._

 _When do the doctors think he'll wake up?_

 _They say that there's still a chance he could be stimulated enough to regain consciousness, but I highly doubt it._

 _Okay. Well, remember, if you ever need anything, you can always talk to me or your father. Okay?_

 _Okay, Mom. Love you._

 _Love you, too, honey._

Judy put her phone away and stared at the tiled floor morosely, waiting for only a few seconds. "Anyone else want to distract me?" she muttered to herself; nothing was offered in response: no phone, no door, just the soft, steady beep of Nick's monitors. But as Judy listened to them, they slowly ate away at her heart. The full impact of life's value hit her at full force. So many bodies. So many stories. So many lives. Everyone grew up in different situations, liked different things, loved different souls. All the faceless victims of wars and poverty and terrorism...they all had stories. What made animals think they could write the violent, bloody endings of the books of others? They had no right to alter anyone except themselves. And if they ever tried…

"F... 'em." Judy finished the sentence out loud, giving a low chuckle almost immediately after she did so. All her life, she had tried to steer away from profanity, but here she was, swearing at the ground like it was nothing. Some saint she was. She slowly looked up and watched Nick's nose expand and retract, following the beat of the drummer that resided in his heart. If she was going to speak to him, it had to be now, while nothing could stop her. She took a deep breath and started to talk.

"So I guess this means you're Sleeping Beauty now." She stopped herself, not entirely sure where to go with her speech. "You know, it's been three days since you opened your eyes. For a fox with a tough-guy facade, you're not very resilient. Man, what am I even saying? How could I expect you to be up and about three days after you were given a lethal injection that almost floored you for good? Just...rest and get better, Nick. No rush."

The words even sounded stupid in her head. "God, Nick. I don't know what to say, I don't know what to do. I've done nothing but sit here and use the bathroom since you were carted off by the medics. I can't keep this up any longer, Nick. I have to pay rent and go to work and be with everyone else in my life, but I don't want to just leave you here alone. If you could talk to me, what would you tell me to do?"

She half-expected Nick to answer; she then realized she was talking to a sleeping fox. She didn't know what else she could say. And then it hit her. She could say anything she wanted to him and no one would hear her say it. What to say, what to say?

"When I was a kit," she started, her voice soft, "I had a younger brother who was bullied by Gideon, Gideon Grey. He loved to taunt us, hurt us. It was a game to him. But one day…" Judy took a deep breath. It was hard telling someone something you've never spoken of before; how was Nick able to admit to his brutal encounter with prey in college? "One day, my brother had had enough.

"It was in the sixth grade. Well, my brother was in the sixth grade, Gideon and I were both in the eighth grade. I was hanging out with my friend Valerie, eating just like every other day, and then I saw it out of the corner of my eye. Gideon started pushing my brother around real good, like he meant it. Since I was big sister, my first instinct was to rush over and help. So I tried to help. I intervened and gave Gideon the classic speech. You know, 'Why don't you pick on someone your own size?'

"I guess Gideon took it to heart, because he actually punched me in the face. Knocked me to the ground. Wasn't the first time he had hit a girl before, but it was definitely the hardest left hook he'd ever laid across my cheek bones. And as I hit the ground, I looked over at my brother to make sure Gideon hadn't started on him. And you know what my brother does? He looks at Gideon and says, 'No one messes with my big sister.'"

"It was _on_ , Nick. I mean, you should have seen it. Old school fistfight. Eventually, people saw what was happening and crowded around, chanting, 'Fight! Fight! Fight!'' I got swallowed in the crowd, and I couldn't see what was happening. I just heard the punches and the cries of pain. And then...Gideon starts taunting my brother. Calling him 'bunny boy,' 'idiot,' 'weakling.' Now my brother isn't one to take crap. He will hurt you, and he will hurt you bad. So he hears this, and I know the gears are turning in his head. He's going to beat the living daylights out of Gideon.

"The next thing I hear is a barbaric yell from my brother, a whack, and a cry of pain from Gideon. Now the teachers have started to take notice and push their way through the crowd. This gives me a good chance to see what's happened. And what do I see when the smoke clears? Gideon on the ground clutching his head and my brother standing over him with a freaking two-by-four." Judy broke into nervous laughter. "I mean, the kid had barely made it through little league, and now here he was, winning a fight against a fox." She felt her smile fade. "Gideon left us alone after that. Realized that we were more trouble than we were worth. So I guess that…" Judy could hear herself struggling for words. "The moral of the story is…"

There was only one thing that seemed sensible: Judy got closer to Nick, close enough to kiss him, and said, "My family never gives up on the animals we care about. And believe me, Nick, I care about you." She pecked him on the snout. "A lot." She looked at him closely. At the risk of insulting him, he looked...cute. Like a little baby fox sleeping away without a care in the world. No wonder he was so charming. And in that moment, it was like Nick was speaking to her: a voice in her head said, "Go back to work. Don't close yourself off from the world on account of me. The force needs you. The city needs you. They need you more than I need you." Her path forward was clear. No longer would she sit there, worrying about Nick incessantly. He'd be fine, and however long it took him to recover, she would be fine. She'd wait for news that Nick was okay, and then she'd go and see him. But this wasn't the way to do it: watching a pot that wouldn't boil. Nick would wake up when he was ready. In the meantime, Judy had a life to live. She gave him one last goodbye kiss, fully on the lips (something she had tried as a way to wake him up), and rose to her feet. "I'll be back, Nick," she said. "Don't die on me." When she had double-checked that she had everything she came in with, she turned around and went out the door, one she wouldn't open until the fox woke from his torpor. Her father had been waiting right outside the door, leaning against the far wall with one leg crossed in front of the other and his hands in his pockets. Once he saw that she was done, he stood upright and gave her a big smile.

"You ready, hon?" he asked.

Judy nodded. "I can't wait to let the city know what a good cop looks like."

Her father laughed and looked at her with a loving smile. "You already have, Judy. You already have." And together they walked through the hospital once again, Judy ready to take on the world, if need be.

She had no idea what was in store for her next.


	16. Two Losses, a Lead, and an Autograph

"I'm just looking for Officer Judy Hopps, sir."

Judy kept her head down, little bunny nose immersed in her work, and she tried to avoid making her presence known to Jay. The bull had been trying to talk with her pretty much ever since she got back from Nick's hospital bed (he had entered the ZPD five minutes after she did), but had encountered Clawhauser, who, while a very good friend, seemed to think that Judy needed space...a lot of space.

"Judy's not feeling well, Mr. Cameron," Clawhauser said. She could hear the good intention in his voice, but could Jay? To another animal, one with less acute ears, Clawhauser might just be a nuisance.

"This is extremely important!" Jay cried out, possibly one such animal. "I need to get in touch with her concerning something of a sensitive nature."

"Sir, please keep your voice down," Clawhauser said; Judy detected a bit of urgency in his voice, as if he was trying to keep the conversation secret. "I can't help you."

"Look," Jay said. And that was all she could hear. He must have been whispering, because his voice was no longer audible to her. Now she could actually focus on her work instead of pretending to focus on her work. She looked at the first page in the file. A biochemist had gone missing. Again with the missing animals cases?! How many kidnappers could be lurking in Zootopia? As Judy kept reading, she discovered that the chemist (a gopher) had been working for the city, trying to further develop the night howler taurine antidote. He had gotten very, very close, by the looks of it. The tests alone showed exponential progress, multiple methods of introducing taurine into the systems of affected animals, and a lot more. The solution was on the tip of his tongue...and then, it would seem, he was silenced. A bunch of different suggestions about how he disappeared were given, ranging from corporate attempts to get him to work for them to a couple of junkies he sold some bad drugs to. Judy rubbed her eyes. This one was going to be a doozy…

"So when she comes back, let me know." Jay was audible again, and now he sounded both a little annoyed and a little dejected. She chanced a peek from behind her computer. He was walking out of the door with a clipboard in his hoof. He seemed very unhappy about whatever had happened. So...what did he want to talk to her about? Her instincts told her to chase after him, and for once, she agreed with them. The missing gopher would have to wait until later. She got up, making a beeline for Clawhauser. The cat saw her coming.

"Hey, Judy!" he greeted her cheerfully, his face partially hidden by all of his breakfast items strewn about on the desk. "What's up?"

"Not much," Judy replied. "What did Jay want with me?"

Clawhauser frowned. "Oh, him. He was blabbing on about some top-secret thing that he had given you. What is he talking about?"

Oh, of course, Judy told herself. The FURRIEs. He wanted the FURRIEs back. "No idea," she lied; it'd be better if Clawhauser didn't know what Jay wanted. "Why'd you turn him away?"

"Because you're going through so much, Judy! I mean, what with your parents losing their house, and Nick almost dying, and - and -" He struggled visibly. "I just wanted to be a good friend."

"Aw, thanks, Ben," Judy said. "But actually, I can talk to him now, so I'm going to go chase after him and see if I can't figure out what he's after."

"Oh," Clawhauser said, surprised. "Okay, then. Go ahead." He looked over at his box of doughnuts. "I'm not going to stop you," he said, giving one last distracted glance at Judy before grabbing a pastry and giggling like a little girl.

"Right. See you." Judy showed him her back and jogged out of the department, wondering why Jay wanted the FURRIEs. She opened the door and immediately began scanning the parking lot for him, still jogging as she did. Where was he? An animal that big can't just disappear. Wait! There he was! Climbing into a truck! Judy picked up her pace and started calling to him, waving her hands in an effort to get him to stop. "Hold on, Jay! Wait!"

As she got within jumping distance of the truck, it stopped abruptly. She saw the door open, and Jay hopped out, looking at her with a worrisome edge to his face.

"Judy, why didn't you talk to me in there?!" he asked.

Judy was put on the spot; she didn't really have a good reason. "Uhh…"

Jay waved his hand. "That doesn't matter. What matters is this: are you still in possession of the FURRIE I gave you?"

"No, I'm not," Judy answered. "Some raccoon from the...MIB, was it?" She couldn't remember which agency he was with.

Jay recoiled in fear. "Oh, God."

"What? What's wrong?"

Jay gave her a much more serious look. "Was this guy's name Brodi Noho?"

Judy racked her brain; so much had happened in the past few weeks! "Uhh...I think so."

With no warning, Jay punched the side of his truck. "Damn it!" Judy jumped back, unsure why he was acting this way.

"Calm down, Jay," she said, "and tell me what's happening."

"Agent Brodi Noho doesn't exist."

Judy heard him, but didn't understand him. "Wh-what are you saying?"

Jay got close and lowered his voice. "I'm saying that whoever you gave your FURRIE to isn't part of a government agency."

Judy's head filled in the gap. "Which means that whoever he works for has access to the FURRIEs!"

"Now you see why I'm more than concerned, Ms. Hopps," Jay said. "We have to track him down."

"Whoa, whoa, wait," Judy protested. Was he saying she had to come with. "Together?"

"As much as I want to bring you in on this one, the higher-ups at the FDA decided against it. To them, it looks like a dirty cop stole a prototype."

"What?!"

"Now, I know you're not a dirty cop," he added as Judy opened her mouth to protest again, "but that's what the FDA sees. So I'll set the record straight with them and get you back your credibility. For now, just make sure Nick knows that this is going on."

"Wait a minute," Judy said, remembering Nick's cover and trying to keep it from Jay. "Nick who?"

Jay rolled his eyes and gave a smile. "'Wally Grayson?'" he said in a skeptical voice, putting air quotes around the name. "Seriously? Shoulda known that was a fake name."

"How'd you figure it out?"

"I had a feeling he was pulling a fast one on me, so I did some digging. Wally Grayson was a fox, and he looked like Nick, but Grayson's been living under the radar for quite some time. Cross-reference that with the fact that there's only one fox cop in Zootopia as of yet, and you have one Jay Cameron who was too slow to figure it out the first time. Honestly, though, I was surprised that there's still only one fox cop and one bunny cop on the force. Figured you guys would have been super-inspiring for your species." He said all of this quite fast, due to the urgency of his visit. "Anyway, I'm off to track down your FURRIE. Catch you later! And don't give stuff to people you don't know!" And with that, he jumped into his truck, pulled out of his parking space, and shot down the road. Judy, with no way of stopping him, yelled, "Drive safe!" But she doubted that he heard her. She sighed. Well, that gopher wasn't going to find himself. She went back inside, sat down quietly, and began to work.

So this chemist, Max, had last been seen by his friend, John Benson. Benson was a vulpine musician who had become a kind of rising star in the pop scene; he had toured with Gazelle recently and, coincidentally, had a lifelong interest in biology and chemistry. The two had met during one of Benson's concerts; Max had been the winner of two VIP tickets, one of which he had given to his girlfriend. Judy stared at the sentence on her paper. "Gave VIP Benson concert tickets to girlfriend." What difference did it make? So they went to a concert together. So what? Judy had gone to a concert with Nick. What made Max's experience so important, VIP or no VIP? Then she read the next sentence. "Last known location: backstage venue of Benson's next joint concert with Gazelle." Judy had an ah-ha moment. So that's why it was important! Max had last been seen at Benson's next gig! So Benson must have captured Max in order to keep him from finishing his work! But wait a minute. There was no evidence directly connecting Benson to Max's kidnapping. Which meant that Judy's accusation was just a theory. And all theories needed to be tested. She would have to investigate.

For the second time, Judy was forced to pause. Her partner was in the hospital. What if she needed backup? She would have to get clearance to bring on a new partner. But that would take days, maybe weeks, and her chance to find Max might be gone by then. It was her old friend, the dilemma, calling. On the one paw, Benson seemed harmless enough: a pop star fox with nowhere to go but up. On the other paw, if there was more to him than meets the eye, Judy would no doubt need someone to help her. But who would help her? An official partner assignment might take too long, and civilian involvement was too dangerous to even consider. What would Nick want her to do? She needn't ask herself the question, for as soon as she did, she knew the answer. Nick would want her to go off the reservation, get her daily dose of adventure and adrenaline, even if it wasn't the smartest option. After all, she was a cop, and she knew what she was doing. Not only that, this had been her life's, and if she was dedicated enough to pursue that dream for her entire life, then she would be able to handle investigating a pop star. She looked at Benson's residence. The Savanna Central? That was an odd place for a fox to live. Maybe he just liked being alone during his down time. Judy grabbed her things and, for the second time in three minutes, walked out on her work day.

By the time she could see him, Clawhauser had already powered his way through half of his doughnut box. Holy cow, Clawhauser, she thought. How is that even possible? Trying to hide her shock, she approached him. This time, however, he didn't see her coming; he was too distracted by his food and his headphones blasting Gazelle's "Try Everything." She walked right up to him and said, "Ben?"

Clawhauser neither heard nor saw her; he had closed his eyes and was humming along with the verse, very out of tune. Judy raised her voice and knocked on the desk. "Ben!"

Clawhauser jumped in surprise, then relaxed when he saw her face. "Oh, Judy!" he said cheerfully, pausing the music and taking his headphones out of his ears. "What's going on?" Without waiting for a response, he waggled a maple bar at her and said, "Here, have a doughnut."

Judy, not wanting to hurt his feelings, took the doughnut. "Thanks, Ben," she said.

"Not at all, not at all," Clawhauser said, grabbing another doughnut. "I've got plenty!"

"Listen, Ben," she started, lowering her voice. "I'm doing something for a case that I want to keep...off the books. If anyone asks where I am, just say I've gone to visit Nick in the hospital."

"Gotcha, Judy," Clawhauser replied. "Quick question: what case are you working on?"

"It's another missing animal case," Judy informed him. "As if we haven't had enough of those already. A biochemist was last seen at Gazelle's next gig. He was visiting with his friend, John Benson, who's going to be playing at the concert as well."

"O...M...goodness," Clawhauser said in awe. "You're going to meet Gazelle and John Benson?" H squealed in excitement. "That's amazing!" He said it like a schoolgirl.

"Calm down, Ben," Judy said, trying to keep him under control. "I'm just going to ask Benson some questions concerning the chemist. That's all."

"Okay, Judy! Will do!" The prospect of knowing someone who personally met John Benson seemed to put Clawhauser in a very good mood.

"Thank you, Ben." Judy nibbled of an undetectable, infinitesimally small piece of her maple bar as she turned around and began to walk to her squad car. It wasn't a half-bad donut, but she didn't really care for sweetened breakfast items; high amounts of sugar tended to disagree with her. Nick would like it, though. He was partial to unhealthy food; his consumption of Animal proved that much. She opened the door with one paw, grabbed a napkin on which to place the doughnut, and sat down, situating herself as dictated by law enforcement protocol. She turned the car on and was met with Nick's favorite music playing loudly. It was enough to make her leap up in surprise and increase her already naturally rapid heart rate as she attempted to spasm-push the off button. But...wait. Why would Nick's music be on if, as far as she knew, he hadn't used their squad car for a while? Weird…

She threw the car into reverse and backed out. Max was on the clock, and no time could be wasted. Without thinking, she burned rubber out of the station, the squealing tires no doubt attracting attention with their distinct noise. Oh, well. There was no turning back now.

Judy slowed down, but only a little, as she navigated through the Savanna Central. The burning sun induced sweating, and Judy wanted nothing more than to go back to the city, where it was cool. But the fate of a gopher depended on her getting to Benson. His address was coming up soon. Even though her knowledge of the terrain was a little rough, the law required similar counting systems for addresses throughout all districts, making it easier for cops to get to places they needed to be. Plus, the entire thing was practically one big desert, so how hard could it be to find him, anyway?

This is my stop, she thought as she turned left and saw the hut that was apparently Benson's residence. Hm. You'd think a rising star would be able to afford a better place, she thought and she parked along the sidewalk and killed the engine. She cast a glance at Nick's donut. It had definitely seen better days, but he'd probably enjoy it all the same. The minute Judy stepped out of the air-conditioned car, she immediately regretted it. A blast of heat slapped her with all of its might, staggering her senses and making her much more uncomfortable. Her brain started telling her to go back, but she would have none of it. For the smallest second, she thought it could be a trap, then remembered that her information came from an official police file. Her source couldn't be pulling any tricks on her, because the source was reliable. She walked up the inclined driveway of Benson's house. The front door seemed intimidating, as if it was daring her to pick a fight with it, but Judy told herself that it was just the heat playing with her head. With a new air of self-deceiving confidence about her, she raised a clenched paw and knocked on the door. Once. Twice. Three times.

The door was quick to open, like Benson was waiting for her. Benson himself bore a sort of strong resemblance to Nick: his height, the length of his snout, his overall aura. Other than that, his blue eyes, moderately muscular build, and wardrobe proved their distance. Judy could tell that this wasn't going to be any normal interrogation. Something about Benson screamed illegal, but she didn't know what. Benson must have sensed her suspicion, because he said, "Don't worry, Officer. Despite the obvious past of our species, I don't bite. None of us do."

Judy gave a polite chuckle. "Of course, sir. Officer Judy Hopps."

"Yes, I know you," Benson said, giving her a smile and extending his paw. "First bunny cop the world's ever seen. Great job, Officer. If you ask me, society underappreciates the animals that break the mold."

Judy could suppress her smile; was he flirting with her? She shook his paw and said, "Thank you very much, Mr. Benson."

"Please," Benson replied. "Call me John."

Yep. He was flirting.

"Is there something you needed, Officer?" he asked.

Judy steeled herself internally. "Yes, sir," she said. "I have a few questions about your friend, Max. He's gone missing."

Benson's face fell somewhat. "You're referring to the...incident at the concert venue?"

Judy cocked her head; there had been an incident? "What kind of incident are we talking about here?"

Benson opened the door completely and gestured for Judy to enter. "Why don't you come on inside? It's freakishly hot out there, especially at this time of year."

Judy walked inside and was immediately impressed. For all of her talk about not judging a book by its cover, she was expecting something much less extravagant. State-of-the-art technology, including high-quality TVs, a home theater sound system, and a sound-proof recording studio, were in plain sight of the doorway. Across the walls, guitars were hung like Christmas lights: acoustic, electric, old and new. The floor was made of a cobalt blue marble tile that made Judy feel like she was walking on the ocean. It was a very impressive trick. On the outside, it looked like a primitive place; on the inside, it was a paradise in and of its own. Judy momentarily forgot what she had came here to do. It was just so...captivating.

"Well, there's something you don't see every day," she said aloud, without realizing it.

Benson chuckled. "They say the home is but a reflection of the self. Well, I do, anyway. Can I offer you something?"

"Yeah," Judy said, still looking around at everything. "Just water."

She could hear Benson pouring her refreshment into a glass. "So...what do want to know about him? Max, I mean."

Judy turned to look at Benson, who was bringing her her drink. He motioned to a pair of chairs. "Go on, have a seat."

"Thanks." In all honesty, Judy needed the break. She sat down, simultaneously taking the glass of water. Benson was offering her. "Why don't you start from the top? Give me the play-by-play of what happened from the time you two met that day to the time you last saw him."

Benson took a deep breath and exhaled. "All right. I think it was about ten in the morning. We were at the stage where I was going to perform next. You've heard about the Benson-Gazelle concert?"

Judy recalled the information from the file. "Yes, to help ease predator-prey tensions after the arrest of our chief of police. I've heard of it." She sipped her water.

"Well, I always like to bring my friends over to the places I'm performing, and Max is one of my closies."

"Closies?" Judy asked.

"'Close friends,'" Benson explained. "It's just an abbreviation. I might be the only animal who uses it, but I use it.

"So anyway, Gazelle and I have to be there at zero dark thirty, trying to get ready with the sound checks and the light cues and the backup dancers. And those backup tigers, the ones Gazelle uses -" He gave a suspicious chuckle and momentarily widened his eyes. "-I've heard things about some shall-we-say predator-prey relations going on."

"Back to the point." Judy wanted to stay on course; Max didn't have time on his side.

"Right. So we're there getting ready for the show, right? And here comes Max, right on time."

"Right on time for what?" Judy asked.

"He normally gets there at six in the morning to alleviate some of the stress of the whole ordeal."

Judy could hear some ambiguity in his voice, as if he was trying to hide something. "Alleviating the stress wouldn't happen to have anything to do with drugs, would it?"

Benson gave a sly smile. "Okay, so maybe he's not exactly one of the physical labor guys. I hope that's okay."

"It's not, but we don't have time. We need to find Max."

"Right. Well, I go to say hello to Max and the both of us go onstage with Gazelle, cause she's doing a sound check. He and I stand to the side as Gazelle does her thing, and when she's done, she comes over and we all start talking."

"And blazing it, too."

Benson chuckled. "It's a once in a while thing. I'm not addicted or anything. Not sure why."

"So you were talking with Gazelle and Max."

"Yep, I was. And at one point, Gazelle says something like, 'I'm gonna go grab a bottle'a water.' Which is a totally normal thing to do, go grab some water."

"Well, me and Maxie are nerd-talking it up with biochemistry, and he eventually gets high enough to let loose about this night howler antiserum he's working on. Now, setting aside the fact that the stupidest thing for a dealer to do is to smoke his own product, he got my attention. I said, 'Whoawhoawait. You're trying to figure out a way to mass distribute this anti-night howler stuff?' And he says, 'Yeah, but there was some dude asking me questions about it at a club. Kept trying to get me drunk enough to start talking, but I don't drink.'"

Judy had an inkling about who might have approached Max. "Get to the point, if you could please, Mr. Benson."

"Point is, Max didn't tell them. Now, this is when my super-sensitive sound receptors pick up a groan, and the voice sounded like it belonged to Gazelle. But this wasn't a tiger-fetish groan. It was fishy, no two ways about it. And sure enough, Gazelle comes out of the shadows a few seconds, some kind of wild look in her eyes." Benson started to look very uncomfortable. "And I could tell that...that it wasn't her. Because she screamed. And this scream…" He shuddered, shaking his head and flapping his ears. "It wasn't earthly. It was like the devil had possessed her."

He looked up at Judy as if begging for comfort. "She couldn't be stopped. Every animal hat tried to restrain her got thrown across the stage. And she went straight for Max." A tear rolled down his cheek. "God. I tried to stop her, but...she just brought her hoof across my chest and knocked me down."

He pulled up his shirt, revealing a scar that looked like a pronged hoof had created it. "It took me a while to get back up, cause I was occupied with making sure I didn't bleed out. As I was lying there, I saw Gazelle carrying something over her shoulder, and it doesn't take a genius to figure out what. So now my friend is gone, and I can't do anything about it." He looked at the floor like he was disgusted with himself.

Judy knew the feeling. Her voice became much softer. "You know, maybe you can do something about it."

Benson looked up at her. She instantly flashed back to Nick's heartbreaking college story. It was almost the exact same situation, and she knew what to do.

"What?" he asked her. "What can I do?"

"Well, you're closer to Gazelle than most people. Is there any place she would go to be alone? Maybe some sort of hideout or isolated beach house?"

Benson furrowed his brow. "No, there's nothing that I can think of."

"You're sure?" Judy asked. "We have to try and save your friend, no matter how little a chance we have."

Benson clearly started to think harder. "Dammit, no. No," he said, defeated. "I can't think of anything. I'm sorry, Officer."

Judy blinked in thought a few times, sighing as she did so. "That's all right, Mr. Benson. I think I've got everything I need to start an investigation."

Benson looked at her. "You already have an idea of where my friend is," he said skeptically.

Judy raised her eyebrows. "You'd be surprised how far even the smallest detail can go in police work." She was lying, of course; she hardly even knew where to begin with such little information. But she hid her defeat, for Benson's sake. He looked like he was about to burst into tears, and the last thing she needed was to comfort a crying fox when she had a gopher to find. She rose to her paws. "Well, Mr. Benson, thank you for your cooperation. I'll get a report in to my superiors immediately."

"Please."

Benson grabbed her by the paw. Judy's instinct was to twist it away from him, but then she stopped. It would be insensitive to not lend a comforting paw to an animal in need. So she kept her paw still, making movement neither to resist or embrace.

"You have to find Max," Benson said. "You just have to. I know he's a dealer, but you can't let them take him. Please. Whatever I have to do, I will. Just don't let him die."

Judy set her jaw and gave him a look of confidence and reassurance. "Mr. Benson - John - I can guarantee you that Max will make it to your concert unharmed. You have my personal promise."

Benson gave a sighing noise, relieved. "Thank you, officer."

Judy didn't know how to end the conversation. What would Nick do? It took her only a split second, but the answer came from her lips as if Nick had used them to suit his own voice.

"Trust me, Mr. Benson, the smart money's always on law enforcement."

Benson let go of her paw and said, "Go on, ma'am. You've got a gopher to save."

Judy gave him a brief smile and turned, walking out of the paradise that the pop star had managed to hide in plain sight. Her paw hit the door knob, and she turned it, sending a mercilessly scalding desert wind into her body at full force. She put one paw out of the door and meant to start on finding Max. But before she did, another Nick moment came to her mind. Casting a glance back at Benson, she inhaled through her mouth sharply, waited a few seconds, and said -

"Might I bother you for your autograph?"

Benson chuckled. "Why not?" He opened the drawer of his coffee table and took out an 8x11 posed picture of himself. Then he dug around in his pockets for a Sharpie, found one, and signed himself, right across the left shoulder. Judy was surprised. "You just happen to have a bunch of photos ready for signing?"

"Rule number one of being a pop star: always be prepared to sign something. And since I'd rather not have to sign an bumpy napkin, I've got wallet sizes, posters, the works." He held it out for her to take. "But through our dialogue, I know this isn't for you, is it?"

Judy cracked a smile as she took the autographed poster. "It's for another officer. Benjamin Clawhauser."

"Thought so," Benson chuckled. "From what I remember in high school, he was always the one who loved the newest pop stars. Course, I wasn't into it at the time, but now here I am."

"Wait," Judy said. "You're old friends with Ben?"

"No, no," Benson replied. "We were both the ones who got picked on, but we never really interacted with each other."

Judy nodded; she knew the feeling. "Got it." And as she turned to walk out the door, a thought occurred to her. She turned around one last time, and said, "We'll find your friend. I promise." And with those final words, she closed the door behind her, to start her journey of finding Max. For Zootopia. For Benson.

For Nick...


	17. Nick's TV Saves Three Lives

Seriously? No turn signal?

Judy started thinking rhetorical questions at the driver in front of her. He - or she - had just turned left without indicating. That was grounds for a traffic stop and a ticket. Just before her shift ended, too...She hit the lights button on her dash, and the black sedan pulled over without a second thought as soon as he saw the red and blue. Good. Nice and cooperative. Judy loved it when perps were compliant; encounters with non-resistant individuals were much less likely to end with a dead animal in the street. Her squad car was thrown into park, her door was opened, and her demeanor was calm. She grabbed her patrolman's sunglasses (as the day was bright even in Downtown) and walked to the driver's window. The driver, a cheetah, rolled the window down and greeted Judy with a smile.

"Morning, Officer," he said, cheerily. It was almost unsettling how happy he seemed. Judy shook it off.

"Morning, sir," she said. "Are you aware of why I pulled you over?"

The cheetah's smile faded away only to let him purse his lips for the slightest of moments. "I don't think I was speeding, Officer," he said. "Hey, wait a minute. You're the bunny cop. Hopps, isn't it?"

Judy gave a chuckle of appreciation."Yes, that's me, sir. But can we focus on you right now, sir?"

"Sure, Officer Hopps. I'm normally not the selfish type, but you have my full obedience on this."

"Thank you, sir. Now, your license and registration, please."

The cheetah rummaged around for his papers. "Ah. Here we go, Officer Hopps." He handed her the items. Judy looked at them briefly. At first glance, everything seemed to be in order. With the violator's information in paw, she followed standard pullover procedure. She leaned into the cheetah's car and said, "Sir, I'm going to run your information through our systems. Now, all I need you to do is stay here, keep your hands on the steering wheel. Okay?"

The cheetah gave her an odd look as he followed her order. "Is there a problem, Officer?"

Judy shook her head. "Not at all, sir. It's just procedure. I do trust you, but I have to take certain precautions for both of our sakes."

"Not a problem, Officer," the cheetah replied with a smile.

"What's your name, sir?"

"Danny Johnson."

"Well, Danny," Judy said, giving her tail a little shake for no reason, "give me just a moment." She turned and walked back to her squad car. It was really one of the more pleasant traffic stops she had made. The driver was nice, there was no interference or resistance, and everyone was basically as calm as could be. It was textbook. And, come to think of it, it seemed to be something Nick never had: a peaceful traffic stop. She recalled the story he told at Gideon's party, and another he had once told her in private…

* * *

 _"How're we all doing today, guys?"_

 _I leaned into the window a little bit as the cougar and what appeared to be his college buddy looked at me like nothing was wrong. Of course, they didn't know that I'd seen them before. I didn't know where from, but something about them was familiar._

 _"We're all right," the cougar said, looking for his ID and insurance. "Bit tired, but all right."_

 _"Yeah, you got some pretty red eyes," I said. "You been lighting up or something?"_

 _"Nope," the passenger said in a doubtful voice. Yep. They've been smoking a joint or a blunt or something like that. I have all I need to put these guys away. "Kay, you have ID on you?"_

 _"Yes, sir." The cheetah reached for what I thought was his ID. But too late did I realize that he had been looking for it all this time. How could he have known exactly where it was if he had been looking for it all over as if he couldn't find it? A blur of movement later, and I've got a fistful of something in my eyes. I have no choice; instinctively, I stagger. From what I can tell, the driver thrusts the door into my body full force, because something big plows into me and I hit the ground hard. Their footsteps are too easy to hear: fast and hard on the pavement. Somehow, I manage to grab my radio and call it in._

 _"This is Officer Wilde, I have a 10-31 in progress!" I keep talking into the radio as I rub the stuff out of my eyes and start running. "Two suspects fleeing at the intersection of Southwark and Mason! Pursuing on foot, requesting backup!" I took off after them. They were running much faster than I could. Felines were already faster than foxes, but cougars? Forget about it._

 _"10-4, Officer Wilde." Yes! Fangmeyer! "Officer Fangmeyer moving to assist."_

 _I put on a bit more speed at the prospect of getting another fast animal involved. The chase was on. The two were quite a ways away, but I could still see what clothes they were wearing. They appeared to be sprinting for their lives. A very natural response, but not a good one. Fast runners or not, most perps don't have anything left in the tank after a short time at full speed. I kept running, knowing that even though trying to catch up to them was futile, they sure as sugar wouldn't want to come my way. Criminals want nothing to do with cops that aren't dirty. I didn't let up on my speed, hoping that we could corral them into a corner even if I wasn't the fastest animal on the planet…_

* * *

"Officer, are you all right?"

Judy shook her head. For some reason, she was seeing Nick's encounter through his eyes, how he saw it happen...and she was standing right in the middle of the street. "Yeah, sorry," she called back to Danny. "I just...I was thinking."

"That's fine!" Danny said. "I'm in no hurry, ma'am."

Judy opened the door to her car and ran Danny's ID through the fancy little device on the dash. She always forgot the name of it, but it was better than a Rolodex. The machine confirmed it: Danny Johnson, a 33-year-old cheetah with no criminal record. A few traffic tickets, but they were nothing serious. He seemed harmless enough. With this knowledge, Judy got back out of her car and walked to Danny's window.

"Excuse me, Officer," Danny said, "but I'm not quite sure why I got pulled over."

Judy explained it to him. "Well, sir, you neglected to use your left turn signal back there." She pulled open her book and began writing the ticket. "Now, it's a $97 ticket for not using your turn signal, and the sooner you get it turned in, the less damage it does to your insurance rates." She ripped it off and handed it to him. "There you go. I'm sorry all of this had to happen, but we're just trying to keep everyone safe."

"I appreciate that, Officer," Danny said, taking the ticket with a smile. "I'll get it paid off right away."

"Thanks for being so cooperative today, Danny," Judy added, returning the smile. "You have yourself a safe drive, okay?"

"Will do, Officer," he replied. As he rolled up his window, he said, "Keep Zootopia safe, Officer!"

Judy gave him a two-fingered salute as he drove away. Man, she thought. What a great guy...Well, that's the end of my shift. Back to the apartment with me.

And she got in her squad car and drove to the station, ready to transfer to her own car, get home, and turn in after a very, _very_ long day on the job.

* * *

 _A bullet flew through the air in slow motion. The entire room crawled as it spiraled, spinning closer and closer to its target. Finally, it burrowed and tore and ripped through Nick's chest, nesting deep in his flesh. Nick dropped to his knees, his mouth quivering slightly as blood dripped from its corners, and he keeled backward and landed on the ground with a thud. Judy could do nothing to save him; she felt tears streaming down her face, screaming a silent scream, being held back by someone. And there, standing with a gun pointed at Nick, was-_

Judy gasped as she bolted up and found herself in bed. She looked around for a second or two, and relaxed, flopping back on the mattress and looking at the ceiling. It was only a dream. A smile of relief spread over her face as she turned over to look at the clock. 5:57. Her alarm was about to go off, and just in time for the 6:00 news. She grabbed her phone and opened the local news website. Their programs were aired online as they aired on TV, so it was fortunate that she could still watch without the pleasure of television. She heated up one of her instant-oatmeal bowls that she had bought for the days when she needed a quick breakfast ("Just add water!") and began to dress herself in uniform, but not without checking that the volume was turned up on her phone. As she changed, she listened to find out if the news had started. _Beeep! Beeep! Beeep! Beeep!_ Her oatmeal had finished heating up. With her uniform shirt on, she went for the microwave, surprisingly hungry. She popped the door open, taking a moment to sniff at the aroma set free from its metal cage. It wasn't anything remarkable, but the presence of cinnamon was unmistakable. She carefully scooted the cup out of the microwave, making sure her paws contacted it for no more than a second each time; the first time she ate one of these oatmeal cups, she nearly burned her paw pads off by holding it too long. Finally, it plopped onto the table, giving off steam as it lay there. Judy gave her paw a little shake to disperse the heat, grabbing a spoon from her silverware drawer and placing it in the cup.

 _"Good morning, Zootopia."_ The phone was beckoning to her. _"This is the 6:00 morning news. I'm Peter Moosebridge…"_

 _"And I'm Fabianna Growley."_ Judy picked her phone up and watched the two reporters, wondering what they could have to talk about today. Their stories had gotten rather ridiculous over the past few weeks. From tails caught in food processors to regulations on bubblegum chewiness, she thought she was, in fact, watching a parody of actual news companies whenever she tuned in.

 _"Our top story today,"_ Moosebridge started. _"A suspicious vehicle was seen near the Cliffside Asylum last night-"_

The shot changed to amateur footage of a car. But wait. This car was familiar…Judy stared closer and tried to read the license plate, but the camera was shaking too much and the quality was too poor. She gave up and listened to the newscasters again, wondering where she had seen that car before.

 _"-a delivery of enhanced night howler,"_ Moosebridge finished. Judy could have guessed it; she had become immune to emotions that used to rile her when she heard of a new development in the night howler scandal.

 _"Questions are being raised in the developing case of Officer Nicholas Wilde and an unknown assailant who supposedly injected him with an apparently lethal dose of theobromine."_

The scene changed again; this time, it was Nick in his hospital bed, still unmoving. Multiple views of him were shown before the video transitioned to a younger fox with a pink mohawk playing the electric guitar.

 _"He's been taking metalheads - and the Internet - by storm,"_ Growley started. " _And now he's playing with a musician twice his age. Twenty-three-year-old Tuck Peterson will be performing his first live concert in Tundratown in a joint effort with Gazelle and rising pop sensation John Benson to relieve tensions between predators and prey in the current crises."_

 _"And finally, the aftermath of ex-Chief Bogo's arrest for his role in the night howler menace: are we really safe after all?"_

Hell no, we're not, Judy thought to herself. But she wanted to watch, not criticize. She kept her mouth shut and stared at the screen, waiting for the actual news to start.

 _"Well, it's a beautiful day, isn't it, Fabianna?"_ Moosebridge started.

Great. Judy couldn't stop herself from thinking sarcastic thoughts. Let the flirting commence.

 _"Indeed it is, Peter,"_ Growley purred in agreement. _"Looks like the sun will be in the sky all day...but let's leave that for our meteorologist."_

 _"Let's start with the newest development of the criminal underworld,"_ Moosebridge began as the shot changed to a closer look at the moose. _"Earlier last night, a suspicious black vehicle was seen near the Cliffside Asylum. Witnesses say the four-door sedan was given access to the Asylum by the guards. Fortunately, one witness was able to make out the license plate number: FAF-space-three-zero-one. Witnesses don't know what made the guards at the asylum give the vehicle passage, but speculations have been made that it was transporting anything from test subjects to night howler. "_

Judy now knew why that car had looked familiar. It was Danny Johnson's, the cheetah she had pulled over yesterday! Now she understood why he had been so pleasant. He just wanted to avoid getting arrested for carrying night howler in his car! And with this new information, she had a lead on where Gazelle might be.

 _"The asylum's previous use was housing for the fourteen missing predators that had once given Zootopia a great scare. The mammals, since then all released, have been fully rehabilitated and the mastermind, Mayor Lionheart, released from prison after it was discovered that Dawn Bellwether, the assistant mayor at that time, was the criminal behind the entire night howler caper. The possibility that the continuation of the night howler menace is no longer an impossibility, if true, could prove absolutely disastrous."_

The shot now cut to Fabianna, who began her part. _"Five days ago, ZPD officer Nicholas Wilde was attacked and injected with a fatal dose of theobromine, an active chemical in chocolate that makes the candy poisonous to all members of the canine and vulpine families. Wilde was found in the Natural History Museum after a panicked 911 call for an ambulance. The call follows."_

A phone with scrolling text appeared on it, with a small icon on the top left with Judy's face on it. The caption to the right said "Voice of: Judy Hopps." And then Judy heard the dispatcher.

 _"911, what's your emergency?"_

 _"Thank God,"_ came Judy's voice. _"I have an adult male fox in the Natural History Museum who's been injected with a lethal dose of theobromine. I've given him an antidote, but I don't know if it's enough. Please...he needs help."_ She felt weak, begging for help like that. She was a cop, darn it, and she was supposed to keep a cool head in situations like these. But then she stopped beating herself up. This was Nick she had been trying to save. The only guy she had ever cared about so deeply. Her dumb fox…

 _"Okay, we're sending a unit. How much theobromine has he had?"_

" _I-I don't know. It got pumped right into his system."_

" _I'm sorry. Say again?"_

" _The-the theobromine was introduced to his bloodstream directly, no ingestion. I did the same with the antidote."_

" _Okay, thank you. The medics are on their way."_

The shot changed back to Fabianna. _"This morning, doctors awoke to find Officer Wilde absent from his recovery room with no sign of a struggle or a way of escape. Questions have been asked about this odd truth: What happened to Officer Wilde? Could someone have taken him? And if he was indeed captured, could the culprit try to snatch more patients in the future?"_

Judy was conflicted. Half of her said, "Go find Nick!", but the other said, "No. You have to save Max first." Half of her was driven by passionate love, the other driven by the greater good and the possibility that civilization might lie in ruins if she couldn't keep the criminals from scaring off Max. Then she stopped. What would Nick do? The past few times she asked herself that question had seen her achieve what she wanted to achieve. If two times had worked, then why not three? She got into Nick's head, closing her eyes and thinking hard, trying to imitate Nick's thought process. What if she were missing, and he had to choose between looking for her and looking for a scientist who would help all of Zootopia? And then, just like that, the solution was clear as day. Nick would work for the greater good _and_ try and find Judy at the same time. Somehow, he would find a way to do both. And that's what Judy's only option was. She couldn't choose either of them without feeling terrible about not choosing the other, so she would save both of them. Simple, right? Or so she hoped…

She closed her Serengeti web app and dialed Clawhauser's personal number. She wasn't sure he'd be able to keep the secret, but someone had to know what she was up to. The phone rang only twice before fumbling occurred on the other end.

 _"Judy!"_ Clawhauser said, a little drowsily; Judy heard a spoon clinking against the walls of a cereal bowl. _"What's happening? Is something wrong?"_

"No, Ben, nothing's wrong, but thanks for asking," Judy assured him. "I just have to let someone know about this, and right now, you're the only one with the clearance to hear this."

 _"Wait. Why me?"_ Clawhauser asked.

"Because…" Judy took a deep breath. The impact of reality was starting to set in. "Because you're the only animal I can trust with this information right now. Nick's missing, and my parents can't know about this, and I don't know the other officers very well."

A silence came from the other end, but it wasn't an awkward silence. It was one of gratefulness. _"Thanks, Judy. That means a lot to me."_

A touch of emotion for Clawhauser poked Judy's conscience for only a second, then it was gone, replaced with urgency. "Listen, I'm dropping off the radar to follow a lead. A biochemist named Max has gone missing, I think I already told you that. He was working on a solution that would enable mass production of anti-night howler foods, appliances, et cetera. He's gone missing, and I think he's at the Cliffside Asylum."

 _"Why do you think that?"_

Judy sighed. "Did you see the news this morning?"

 _"Nnno?"_ Clawhauser replied uncertainly.

"Well, it turns out he might have been taken prisoner in the Cliffside Asylum. I need to investigate, see if he's actually in there."

 _"Couldn't there be a way to find out whether or not he's there without putting yourself in danger?"_

Judy chuckled. "I appreciate the concern, Ben, but you know how police work can be. Hey, listen," she added, for she could hear Clawhauser making uneasy noises for fear of her life, "it's going to be just like the academy. Quickly, quietly, and intelligently. I'll be fine."

 _"Okay,"_ Clawhauser agreed hesitantly. _"If you absolutely have to…"_

"If you don't hear back from me in twenty-four hours, call my parents, call anyone the both of us know. I'll either be captured, or...you know."

 _"All right. And, Judy...please be careful."_

"I will, Ben," Judy said solemnly. "I will." She lowered the phone from her ear and pressed the red button to end her call. There was a kind of dawning moment, one that made her realize that she might never see her parents, her friends, Nick...she might never see them again. For the slightest of moments, she tried to talk herself out of going to the asylum. But it was a fleeting hesitance; she reminded herself that if she didn't do this, countless innocent predators and prey could die. Nick would understand that. Her parents would understand that if, God forbid, she died, it was to save an entire city and all of its citizens. That was worth dying for, wasn't it? This was how heroes were made. She made for the door, but hesitated. Everyone else was sleeping; the last thing she needed was to make a bunch of noise and have the twins next door start causing a commotion. She had to act now, but how was she supposed to get out of her apartment without alerting the whole floor? The she had an idea. The window. She turned around and saw her solution. Yes, that was it! She could use the window to get out unseen and unheard. She was on the first floor, after all, and it only a five-foot drop, if that. On quiet, nimble, bunny feet, she dashed to the window and opened it as slowly and inconspicuously as she could. But her plan was thwarted by a loud, squeaky hinge. It gave a horrid _Squeeee!_ as she pushed it open, causing her to cringe in fear. Finally, she stopped about halfway through the act and looked around, trying to catch any signs of movement. Luckily, she had managed to avoid waking the neighbors. She gave a heavy sigh of relief and squeezed and shimmied her way through the window until she was sitting on the sill with her cottontail. She put her paws down on the sill and heaved herself off of it, arching her back and trying to get as far away from the window as possible. The ground rushed to meet her, but bent knees and a paw on the grass denied it a kiss. And off she walked to her car, ready to serve and protect. God knew Zootopia needed it...badly.

Judy killed the engine a half-mile from the asylum. Wolves had good ears, and were able to give most rabbits a run for their money. She climbed out of the car and proceeded on foot, her bunny instincts skillfully quieting each step she took. The asylum was in sight, and she could see blotches of black and white that indicated moving guards. No problem. She had a trick up her sleeve…

Wait. The toy! She had forgotten about it! Judy threw the door open and looked in her glove compartment for the squeaky toy ball Nick had accidentally left in her car once. He said it wasn't his, that it was a gift for a friend's brother, and then he forgot all about it when he got out of the car. Thank God that the one thing he had forgotten might save Judy's life. She gave it a confident toss in the air, grabbed it in mid-flight, and got back out, closing the car door silently before jogging towards the asylum.

She came within thirty steps of the security checkpoint before she forced herself to take cover behind a bush. It was a terrible bullet blocker, but it would be easy to hide in and easy to see through. She parted a few of the branches in front of her to get a better understanding of the situation. Two guards stood there, watching vigilantly. It was a wonder they hadn't seen her with such frantic eyes. Always darting from one place to the next, waiting for a would-be passerby to shoot or capture. But that wouldn't happen to Judy. No, sir. She looked at the toy, gave it a goodbye peck, and tossed it out into the light, where the guards would see it.

 _eeee-hah!_

The two guards perked up at the noisy red rubber ball.

 _eeee-hah!_ It bounced again.

One of them was immersed, but the other snapped out of it, and was trying to convince the first it wasn't worth his time.

"Gary," he said, shaking the other. "Gary! Let it go, man!"

The first wolf wasn't going to be convinced so easily. "But, Larry, it's a _ball_!"

 _eeee-hah!_

"You remember what happened last time your mind wandered?" Larry said. "We ended up almost gettin' pinched! It was just luck that they were too interested in Lionheart to care about two timber-"

" _Ball! Ball!_ " Gary wasn't paying attention; he grabbed Larry back and started shaking him, repeating _"Ball!"_ over and over, until finally, he got on all fours and chased after it. It was like a domino effect; once Gary started running, Larry got the same look in his eyes, running and yelling, _"Ball! Ball!"_

Judy suppressed a smirk. Canines, she thought. So easy. She sneaked past the guard post like she did the first time she had come here. The path into the asylum was clear. She checked her surroundings. No hostiles overhead, none around her, none in sight. That, of course, didn't leave the possibility of hidden guards, and she kept on the safe side, treading very, very carefully.

The door to the asylum, thought slightly creaky, provided no major commotion as she tiptoed into the building. Still no guards. It was the same graveyard of beds that had been there the first time, but...she didn't get it. Why guard a bunch of empty beds and a sewer entrance? This must have been the back end of the asylum, where everything that wasn't useful anymore was kept. Judy took great, big, silent leaps across the room to make up for lost time. Max had to get to safety, soon, or Zootopia would fall. She flattened herself against the wall, and opened the door on the other side of the room, slowly peeking her bunny nose around the corner to see if anyone was coming. The coast was clear; she opened the door all the way, crept through, and closed it quietly, covering her tracks. She remembered this room, the one with the purple glow and the gigantic chair that could only have been used with malicious intent. It was unsettling to even look at. She looked around. No one else. Not even a mouse. Her heart was beating abnormally fast, even for a rabbit, and she got a very uneasy feeling. Somehow, in the back of her head, she knew that she wasn't going to like what she saw as her journey through the asylum continued. She reached for the knob on the next door, then stopped. The voice inside her head was back.

Don't, it said.

I have to, she told it.

Remember what happened last time you were in here? You and Nick almost got killed!

Yeah, but we ended up finding all of those animals. How hard could it be to find a caged gopher?

Maybe he's not here, the voice pointed out, and rather arrogantly at that.

But it's a lead, and I have to follow it, no matter what the result is. If Max is here, I'm going to find him.

And if he's not here?

Then we keep looking for leads.

Do you even understand the gravity of the situation? If you don't find him, then good luck getting out of here alive!

Well, that's police work for you. Now, stop second-guessing me and shut up. Judy drove the doubts from her mind and steeled her nerves, putting her paw on the knob and turning it with caution. The door opened quietly, and Judy slipped into the cell block undetected.

It was just like last time...only without all of the animals. Dark, looming, and very unfriendly, the room intimidated her, without fail. But she overcame it as best she could, a desperate attempt to stay focused. She pulled out her phone and used the flashlight feature to look around. It was a very dangerous decision, for she gave away her position as long as she was using it, but she had to try to find Max. Down the hall of empty cells she walked, shining the light back and forth, left and right. No sign of any inhabitants whatsoever could be found. She progressed through the cells like butter, giving quick but scrutinizing looks at each cell. But, as she got farther and farther, she started to hear a faint noise. Was it...crying? Yes! It was! It was muffled, but it was there! The only question was obvious: who was doing the crying? Judy swallowed uncertainly, opened her mouth, and whispered, "Hello? Is someone there?"

The crying stopped for a few seconds. Judy tried again.

"Where are you?" she said in a quiet, comforting voice. "I'm not going to hurt you. I'm a cop."

The crying resumed, growing louder and louder as she walked down the row of cages. It was coming from one of the cells on the left. She quickened her pace, eager to find out who it was. As she approached the owner of the whimpering voice, her adrenaline built and built to frightening proportions. Her heart became a battering ram, smashing against her rib cage. She cast the light on the cell and looked to see…a gopher, crying, tied up and bloodied. This must be Max.

"Max?" she whispered.

The gopher looked up. "Wh-what?" he asked.

Judy breathed a sigh. "Thank God. My name is Judy Hopps. I'm here to get you out."

Max shook his head. "Can't. No key."

"What?" Judy asked.

"You can't...break me out….They use...security cards."

Judy looked around for a security card for a brief moment, then stopped herself. "Why look for a card on the ground - when there's obviously never going to be one - when the both of us…" She looked at the holes in the plexiglass, which were big enough for both of them to fit through. "Can break out through these lovely little escape holes?" She took a few steps back, took a running start, and dove through to the other side, rolling as she landed. Her leap had placed her close enough to Max to free him from his bonds, but just like the door, a key was required to liberate him. She sighed. "Never easy, is it?"

"There...has to be...some way...out," Max said, as if he was desperately hoping his statement held water.

Judy got an idea. "There is, but you won't like it."

Max gave her a worried look. "What...is it?"

"Do you trust me?"

"Do I have...another...option?"

Judy pulled out her pistol, much to Max's dismay. "W...wait," he protested. "If you...shoot me…"

Judy rolled her eyes. "I'm a cop, and the only reason I came was to get you out of here. You really think I'm going to kill you?"

Max shook his head. "When you...put it... _that_ way…"

Judy raised her weapon to eye level and pointed it at Max's bonds. But before she could, a hiss grabbed her attention.

"Psssst!"

Judy turned around with a gasp, fearful that someone had caught them red-handed. Her eyes were might with the sight of…

"Nick!" She ran to the plexiglass and gave him the best hug she could through two holes impeding her range of motion. The fox poked his nose through the hole in between her arms, which she kissed in ecstasy many times over. When she relented her love attack, Nick cracked both a smile and a joke. "Jeez, who fell into a coma?" he asked.

Judy chuckled; it was like he had been gone for years, but it had only been four days. Four days… "Wait a minute," she said, now more suspicious than anything. "How are you awake? The doctors said that you weren't waking up any time soon!"

Nick gave her a warm smile. "They told you what I wanted them to tell you," he said in a low voice. "Theobromine isn't too freakishly debilitating after a few hours, apparently. I woke up for just a few seconds in the van, and I guess I must have mumbled something weird before I fell back asleep. Then I came to again at about midnight." He shook his head. "Look, we're pressed for time. Can we break Max out of here? Without shooting at him?" he added as Judy turned around and took aim again.

"Well, what do you recommend?" she hissed back. "Gnawing through?"

Nick held up a small silver object that looked familiar. "What is that?" Judy asked.

"Does the name Jay Cameron mean anything to you?" he asked, and with that, two little arms came out of the thing. Judy realized what it was.

"That's the laser cutter!" she exclaimed. She immediately clapped her paws over her mouth; her raised voice might have brought unwelcome attention. After a second of silence, straining her ears to identify footsteps that weren't there, Judy relaxed as Nick used the device to cut through the wall. Once it had accomplished its task, the cutter shut down. The wily fox went to grab it, but the severed circle of wall began to fall down towards Judy. She instinctively leaped out of the way, realizing too late that she should have tried to catch it. With a tremendous _WHOMP!_ , it slammed onto the ground. Both she and Nick cringed, the latter recovering quickly and jumping through it urgently. He wasted no time in cutting through Max's bonds with the lasers. Once Max was free, the gopher's arms flopped down to his sides, clearly exhausted. Nick picked him up, fireman's-carry style, and made for his self-created exit. As Judy followed suit, she heard a door open with a large _clank!_ Timber wolves flooded the room and fanned out, looking for the intruders. One of them caught an eyeful of Nick, Judy, and Max, and called out, "Tango! Tango! Tango!"

Judy raised her pistol and took a shot at his leg. The bullet whizzed and hit its mark and the wolf cried out in pain, collapsing on the ground and creating a barrier of sorts that slowed the others.

"Go! Go! Go! Go! Gogogogogogogo!" she yelled at Nick, dodging and returning fire.

"Going as fast as I can, Carrots!" he huffed, jogging at what looked like a painful pace for a fox with a gopher slung over his shoulders.

Judy covered him as they ran, turning back for only a second at a time as they retreated. Sometimes she missed her targets, but when her aim was true, she heard a cry of pain and a thump. Bullets whizzed by her face, giving her a miniature heart attack with each encounter. The first door was approaching quickly, and Nick was going to get there first. If he had to wait for her, both he and Max would be a risk of getting shot. Judy gave a determined burst of speed, blew past Nick, and slammed into the door with her shoulder, opening it, the lock shattering with a _crack!_ The pain in her shoulder barely fazed her; she just kept running until she wasn't comfortable without looking back. She turned around to gauge how far ahead of the pack she had gotten. To her relief, Nick was right on her heels. Unfortunately, the guards were right on his. She aimed and fired at a couple of them, not caring where she hit them. Some of them survived - by a stroke of luck - but the others fell down, incapacitated and completely unable to give chase. Judy put her paw on Nick's back and helped speed him up as they went along. The other door, the one to the bed graveyard, was right in front of them. She had enough time to open it and hustle Nick through, which she did: yanking the door open with one paw, she fired a few rounds to stave off the wolves. On her last shot, the slide stayed open. She hit the magazine release as she closed the door behind her, safe for a few moments and able to reload her weapon.

"What do we do?" Nick asked. "Did you come in through the same way we did?"

"No, I opened the front door," Judy replied, pulling the slide back. "Besides, the pipe's pretty much the safest way to go."

 _BANG!_ Judy jumped, her heart rate spiking for a zeptosecond. They were on the other side, too! Both doors would deliver them into the hands of their enemies. She ran to the pipe cover and began trying to lift it.

"Guess this is...the only...way," she strained, barely getting the cover out of its resting place.

Nick put Max down gingerly and grabbed the cover too, helping her move it out of the way. "On three, ready?" he asked.

Judy nodded.

"One, two, _three_!"

They both let go at the same time, and the cover slammed to the ground. There was no time to waste; as Nick began to pick up Max again, the door the had entered through flew open and guards ran in. Judy started shooting wildly in their direction, not caring where she was shooting or who she was shooting. She turned back for just long enough to see Nick hoisting himself and Max down the pipe, and when she did, started backing up, making sure her attackers were suppressed by her erratic shooting. First went her feet, then her legs, then her hips. As she slipped into the pipe, she heard the splintering of wood; the other door had been breached. Down she fell, ten feet of weightlessness until the pipe gave her a very abrupt landing. It was pitch black, and she couldn't see any signs of Nick or Max. Her phone's flashlight, however, restored her deprived sight. Nick and Max were now revealed to her, the fox covering his eyes.

"Ow!" he cried out in protest.

"Oh, sorry," Judy apologized, turning the phone off.

"So, are _all_ rabbits that inaccurate, or is it just you?" Nick commented, retreating back into the darkness along with Max.

"Shut up," Judy retorted, not in the mood for it. "Use your super-secret fox night vision to get out of here, will you?"

"Well, since you asked so nicely," Nick said sarcastically. Judy heard movement in front of her; Nick was getting them out of there. She followed suit, but she didn't know how quickly Nick was going. Without meaning to, Judy accidentally bumped into him. Well, technically, she bumped into both Nick and Max (who had given a groan of pain).

"Sorry," she whispered quickly.

"It's fine," Nick said. "Just make sure Max doesn't die."

"Yeah, no kidding," she replied. They continued on, their footsteps echoing on the thick walls of the metal pipe. At one point, they stepped in puddles of what Judy prayed was water. "Any idea what that is?" she asked Nick.

Her partner gave a few rapid sniffs. "No odor, it's water."

"Thank God," she said quietly.

A few times, Max tried to say something.

"Nick…" he'd always start off.

"Shhh," Judy would reply. "Save your energy."

Finally, what seemed like hours of slight crouching, darkness, and claustrophobia, Judy could see two small beams of moonlight in the distance, shining like spotlights through the cover above. Judy breathed a sigh of relief. It was almost over. She heard Nick's footsteps speed up a bit, and she did the same. After all, she had found Max _and_ Nick in the same night. That had to count for something, right?

As they approached the cover that separates them from freedom, Nick slowed down, consciously quieting his steps. Judy had no choice but to follow his lead. Maybe he had seen moving bodies, and being discovered was definitely not on the top of the to-do list. Nick, upon getting right underneath the cover, pushed on it with both paws. His efforts were in vain, however; the cover budged only a few inches, if that, before Nick's strength gave in and his knees buckled. Judy didn't know how to get them out of there. Wait. She inhaled and let forth a whoosh of air from her lungs. The sound reverberated off of Nick's and Max's bodies, but it kept going past them. There was more room to move around in. "Hey, Nick," she whispered.

"Yeah," he replied.

"Walk five steps forward, put Max down, and come back and help me."

She could hear the fox obey in her order. One, two, three, four, five steps. The soft thump of Max's body being laid carefully on the ground. The one, two, three, four, five steps Nick took to get back to the cover. Judy put both of her paws on the bottom of the obstruction. "Put your paws up like you're at a Gazelle concert."

"Why can't it be a Five Pawpad Death Slap concert?" Nick mock-griped, following her instructions.

"On three, just like before," Judy said. "Push it towards me. Ready? One, two, _three_!" She put all of her strength into pushing against the cover, involuntarily grunting from the effort. Her muscles tired quickly. Her arms burned. Her lungs screamed for air. The cover was moving across her paw pads; Nick was doing his part. She tried moving it backwards, but to no avail. The best she could do was hold it up while Nick pushed it. Bit by bit, it moved past Judy at a snail's pace. A tear of anguish leaked from her eye. She kept holding it up, and it kept moving, inching, crawling…

Relief. Judy dropped to the cold, hard steel, arms shaking from exhaustion. She panted uncontrollably, giving the odd painful cough every once in a while. She could hear Nick recovering, too.

"Heh-heh-heh-heh-heh-heh-heh-heh-heh-heh," he panted, tongue flapping and flopping while he lay there.

"D...ditto," Judy gasped. She cast a glance at Max. He seemed to be completely unaffected - oblivious, in fact - by what was happening around him. "Grab Whack-a-Mole and let's get out of here," she said.

Nick swallowed, fighting off his panting instinct for only a second. "Of course, your Highness." He rose to his feet, his panting resuming, slung Max over his shoulder, and clambered out, the two animals barely able to fit. Judy prepared her aching legs for a quick spring. She bent her knees, twitched her bunny tail to give herself a boost of morale, then pushed against the pipe. She rocketed up for the briefest of moments, then felt a sharp pain in her left shoulder. She had clipped the side of the opening. It didn't keep her from grabbing onto the edges of the cover's resting place, but it definitely alerted her to the sensation in her shoulder.

"Ahh," she gasped in pain, hauling herself out of that dreadful pipe and onto the nice, soft grass. It took her a few seconds to get to the point where she thought she could stand up safely, but when she tried straightening her legs, she fell with a loud "Whooaa!" But she didn't fall back onto the grass. Instead, she was caught by a firm, warmhearted hand.

"Heh-heh-heh-Easy now," Nick said gently, still panting as he pushed her upright. "Heh-heh-Up you get."

Judy started to try it herself, and found that as she pushed her feet into the ground, she could stand again. Her knees no longer shook, and her legs no longer hurt enough to impede her movement. "Thanks, Nick," she said.

"No...heh-heh-heh-heh-problem." He looked around. "Car?" he asked.

"Follow me," Judy said. "Stick to the shadows." On silent bunny feet she sneaked, past the moving floodlights to the street. She darted from cover to cover, from inside bushes to behind trees. A few times, she took note of how close Nick was to her at any given time. He was almost always halfway between cover points, which was surprising considering that he was carrying Max along. Finally, Judy could see her car...being inspected by timber wolves.

"Great," she whispered sarcastically. "Now our ride out of here's unreachable."

"Heh-heh-heh-Howl?" Nick asked.

Judy shook her head. "They'll just root themselves into the ground for that. Remember last time? They stood exactly where they were and howled." She was surprised; normally, Nick was the one to remember everything and correct Judy. This time, however, she had corrected him. But if that wasn't how they were going to escape, then what was? How could they get away clean?

And then, as if on cue, Judy heard a rock clatter against another object far enough away from them to avoid being seen. The two wolves pricked their ears up and tilted their heads in curiosity.

"Let's go check that out," one said.

"Shouldn't one of us stay here?" asked the other.

"Are you kidding?" said the first. "The animals we're looking for have broken in here once already. If we're going to have a chance of taking them down, it'll be with the both of us! Now stop talking and start moving!" He began to wander towards the direction of Nick's distraction, his partner following uncertainly. Judy looked back at Nick.

"Smart fox," she whispered at him approvingly.

"Dumb wolves," he whispered back. Then he gave her a smile. "Lovely bunny."

She felt a rush of emotion for Nick as she smiled back. Then she checked to see if the coast was clear. To her relief, the wolves were already gone. She creeped out just enough to reach one of the side doors and opened it, motioning for Nick to put Max inside. The fox complied, gingerly laying the gopher down on the seats and closing the door. He opened the passenger's door and clambered in, and Judy went around the front of the car, hopped in the driver's seat, and started the car.

The minute her vehicle made the smallest of noises, shouting could be heard.

"They're in the car! Don't let them get away!"

Judy threw the car in drive and peeled rubber out of the grass and onto the road, not realizing that Nick had been trying to put his seatbelt on when she did.

"Ow!" he protested as they tore down the street.

"Sorry!" Judy replied.

"Don't be!" came Nick's voice. "Just give me your pistol!"

"What?!"

"Trust me! I'm a cop!"

Still trying to keep them on a straight path, Judy fumbled for her firearm with her left paw. She switched from the rearview to the road with lightning fast glances. Finally, she felt her weapon; she ripped it hastily out of her holster and tossed it to Nick. She gave another look in the rearview. The guards were giving chase, and gaining.

 _POKK! POKK! POKKPOKK!_

Judy's ears instinctively slapped themselves on top of her head. "What the-!" She looked over at Nick. He was leaning out of the window, shooting at the road at such an angle that the bullets landed just in front of the pursuing cars before bouncing up and lodging themselves in the proportionally gargantuan moving hunks of metal.

"Don't question my methods, Carrots!" Nick yelled over the noise of the vicious engines and the blistering fast wind. "It's working! They're pulling back, look!"

Judy watched her opponents in her rearview. Nick was right; they were backing off, no questions asked. It seemed that Nick had managed to disable something in the lead car, because it slipped and slid, losing more and more traction, until finally the second car smashed into it, sending the third, relatively unharmed, of the road and out of the chase. Judy sat back in her chair, for she realized the adrenaline of the situation had kept her completely upright and tense. With her mind relaxed enough to focus on nothing but driving, she turned to Nick, an awed expression on her face.

"How did you come up with _that_?!" she asked, sounding a little hysterical.

Nick reloaded her weapon and shrugged. "Saw it on an episode of Fur Notice once."

"What?!"

He looked at her like she was crazy. "You've never heard of Fur Notice?"

Judy put her eyes back on the road. "Nnnno…" she said uncertainly.

"God, never mind," Nick said. "You bunnies aren't that big into TV, are you?"

Judy ignored the comment and kept driving. "Max, how you doing back there?"

Max groaned softly. "Yeah...sure."

She looked over to Nick. "Make sure he doesn't die, will you?"

Nick shimmied and climbed his way to the backseat. Then, and only then did the sheer weight of what had happened begin to sink into Judy's heart. They had save Zootopia from imminent self-destruction. Max would survive and make his antiserum publicly available, and no deaths (at least, not that she knew of) would stain the mission. But what of the methods? Surely the entire city would question her judgment: why she went in alone, why she disregarded protocol. And then there was Nick…

Nick. The cop who wouldn't die. He had been shot with night howler, left inside a burning house, been injected with a fatal dose of the most dangerous chemical known to foxkind, and still he breathed like everyone else. Which led to Judy asking the only relevant question:

"How did you do it?"

In the rearview, she saw Nick give her a look. "What do you mean?"

"There's no way you should have recovered from the theobromine that quickly," she said. "Now spit it out. What happened?"

Nick voice was hesitant and slow. "Well, halfway to the hospital, like I said, I woke up. Apparently, Bellwether deceived us all yet again. According to the doctors, it wasn't a fatal dose of theobromine. They say it was just enough to make me _think_ I was going to die. And believe me, once you've had that kind of experience-" He shuddered. "-you're not going to want it again."

"But…" Judy couldn't figure it out. "Why would Bellwether say it was lethal?"

"To get you to meet her so she could get you to eliminate her opponents. Remember? 'I don't like competition. It's annoying.'"

"That still doesn't change the fact that you should be in a hospital bed right now," Judy said, her annoyance shining through her voice.

"Fine," Nick said wearily. "I woke up about twenty-four hours after the incident occurred."

"But I was with you the entire time," Judy said.

"You weren't there when I woke up," Nick replied. "You must have gone to the bathroom or grabbed a snacky-snack or something like that."

Judy slapped herself internally. "So why were you faking it when I came back?"

Nick gave a sigh, one that sounded regretful or guilty. "Because I was working the case. Trying to find a good candidate for the night howler boss-man. But I turned up a big, old, fat nothing. Then, when I asked the doctors where you had gone, they said you went back to police work. Almost got me to open my eyes with the Animal, by the way, I was struggling near the end.

"Anyway, then last night, one of the doctors - the one I asked to keep me informed on the news - got a text message from his cop buddy that Max had gone missing. When he told me about it, I said, 'Cover for me, I know where he is.' Then I escaped the hospital, made my way to the asylum, and bumped into you two." He paused. "You know, it's funny. There aren't supposed to be any guards at the Cliffside. Not that many, at least. So-"

Judy finished his sentence for him. "Why were they there?" She looked at him through the rearview mirror. "You think someone tipped them off?"

"It can't be a coincidence, Carrots," he said, his face deadly serious. "With all the stuff that's been going on lately?"

"But who could it be?" Judy asked. "The only people who knew were me, Clawhauser, you, and your doctor friend."

"Yeah," Nick replied. "And at this point, _any_ of us could be the culprit."

Judy could hardly believe what she was hearing; she gave a scoff in offense. "Are you actually saying you suspect me?!"

"Wha-? No!" Nick protested. "I just - I was saying that we have to be vigilant!"

"And that means keeping everyone at arm's length?"

"Judy, it was a simple comment with no offense intended to anybody!"

Judy sighed angrily. "This isn't going to go well if we're at each other's throats. Let's just get Max to the hospital before he bleeds out on my upholstery."

Her suggestion shut Nick up instantly. He wore the same nervous, uncertain look that he had when they were being transported to Big's compound. With no hostility to bite back at, Judy tried calming herself down as they drove to the hospital, Max still mumbling as they went.

They had done it. Zootopia was safe.


	18. Deer in the Headlights

Judy threw the car in park right in front of the hospital's main doors. She turned back to Nick. "Bring the gopher," she said. As she opened the door and stood up, a nurse jogged toward her.

"Ma'am," he said. "Ma'am, you can't park there."

Judy was fed up with people telling her what to do. She flipped her badge at him and spoke rapidly. "Judy Hopps, ZPD. Now listen closely. We have a wounded biochemist in the car, my friend is getting him out. We need a stretcher, a trauma unit, and a doctor, stat. If he dies, Zootopia will never be safe again. Are we clear?"

The deer looked at her, stunned.

Judy raised her voice. " _Are we clear?!_ "

"Uh, yes ma'am," he replied, quite obviously fearing the wrath of the bunny cop in front of him. He scrambled to go get the things necessary to ensure Max's survival. "We need a stretcher out here!"

"Man, I know I've said it before, but you're hot when you're angry." Nick had arrived, and was trying to lighten up the situation, as always. Judy gave him a half-appreciative smile, but only for the slightest of moments.

"I'll rest easy when Max is restored to full health," she said. Then, without warning, her legs buckled at the knees, and she fell on all fours, panting heavily.

"Whoa, there," Nick observed. "Are you all right?"

Judy shook her head; she saw protozoa scrambling across her eyes. "Yeah," she said, trying to stand on wobbly legs. "I'm fine. Must have been the adrenaline wearing off after all of this...crazy stuff. I just...don't know how we get such lucky breaks."

"So, you collapsed because you're alive?"

This time, Judy's smile was genuine. "Guess that's one way of looking at it."

She felt Nick tap her shoulder gently. She looked up to see his paw there, ready for the taking. "Up you get, Carrots," he remarked lovingly.

Judy took his paw and righted herself just in time to see the deer on his way back with a stretcher, a trauma unit, and a doctor. "Is this the one?" he asked, indicating Max.

She nodded to Nick. "Put Max down on that stretcher. They'll take it from here."

Nick hoisted Max off his shoulder and lay him gently on the stretcher. "You're all right, Max. You'll be fine."

The doctors looked at Nick. "Hey," one of them asked. "Aren't you supposed to be in a coma?"

"Deal with it later," Judy said. "If this gopher doesn't survive, it's on all of your heads."

The doctor shut up and went about his business. "All right, lads, let's save a life."

Judy watched with a feeling of serenity as the medics transported Max to the hospital, where he would be safe yet again. It was for this that she had wanted to be a cop: saving innocent people, confronting the bad guys. It just felt...right. Getting money for being a good person was probably one of the best things that could have happened to her. And having a love interest on the force, too...she was one lucky bunny indeed.

"Think he'll pull through?" Nick asked her, distracting her from her thoughts.

"Huh?" she replied. "Well, yeah. He'd better. We went to so much trouble to get him out of there, _and_ he's the only one who can get night howler antiserum mass-produced. So yes, I think he'll pull through."

"Fair point," Nick agreed. "Well," he said, clapping his hands and sighing. "We've done all we can. Shall we go start the day?"

Judy rolled her eyes at him. "If the new chief is anything like Bogo, he'll be eating our badges for breakfast for showing up late."

"I don't know," Nick replied. "Kinda hard to get pissed at someone for doing the job you told them to do. Plus, I think our excuse merits a pardon, don't you? I mean, it's not every day you save Zootopia from utter destruction."

Judy sighed. "That's how it's been feeling as of late. We arrested Bogo what, like a week ago?"

Nick gave her a look. "Don't ask me. I've been in a coma." He put his paw to his mouth, the claw of his index finger touching his lips in a silent plea for Judy to shut up about the whole thing.

Judy rolled her eyes. "You're such a screwball, Nick. You know that?"

* * *

"Hey, Judy!"

Clawhauser's ever-jubilant voice took a little bit of stress out of Judy's life. "Hey, Clawhauser."

"So how did it go?" he asked her.

Judy was thrown a little off-guard. "How'd what go?"

"Yerr hummph!" came the happy, donut-filled reply.

"Ben, swallow, then speak." As nice a guy as Clawhauser was, Judy was getting tired of having to remind him of that.

"Mmm-hmmph." A massive gulp took care of the contents of Clawhauser's cheeks as he repeated himself. "Your hunch! How'd your hunch go?"

"Oh!" Judy said, not entirely sure how to tell him about it. "Yeah! Yeah, everything worked out!" she told him; giving him the details probably wasn't the best idea in the world.

"Really?" Clawhauser asked. "So that means you got the biochemist!" He giggled.

"Yeah, we did," Judy replied.

Clawhauser gave a head tilt. "'We'?"

Judy bit her lip; Nick was supposed to be in the hospital. "Officer Wilde and I. Apparently, he made a miraculous recovery." Then a horrible thought occurred to her. Could…? No. No, it couldn't. But, maybe…

"Yyyou okay, Judy?" Clawhauser asked, a bit cautiously. "You seem a bit frightened."

Judy snapped out of it. "Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine. I just…"

"Is something wrong?"

Judy couldn't stop herself. "The, uh...biochemist - Max - is in the hospital. Whoever's behind this whole thing had him tied up in the Cliffside Asylum."

Clawhauser gave a great gasp of astonishment and fear, clasping his paws over his mouth. "No!" he said breathlessly.

Judy nodded. "It looks like they thought torturing it out of him would work." She tried to slap herself mentally, get herself to stop talking about the case, but Clawhauser's personality seemed to be sucking the information out of her against her will, even though she didn't realize it.

"Did it work?"

"We don't know. Max needed to save his energy so he didn't die en route to the hospital. He's in critical condition, and we don't know when he'll be able to get back to working on the antiserum. He hasn't been able to talk, so if I had to guess, they pushed him a little too far before he told them anything."

"Awww," Clawhauser pouted. "We need to get whoever this is off the streets as soon as possible!"

"No kidding, Ben," Judy said. "You and me both want him gone."

"Any idea who it might be?"

She shook her head. "Not a clue." She didn't want to tell him that he was a suspect, regardless of the obvious truth that he wasn't behind it. He could barely organize his workspace; someone like that could in no way be the spearhead of a master criminal organization. Plus, his heart was too kind and his diet was too chock-full of junk food.

"All right," Clawhauser said. "Well, at least Max is safe and sound, right?"

"Yeah, seriously." Judy started for her workspace, but Clawhauser had a last-minute thought.

"Oh, Judy!" he said. "The new chief's here!"

Mixed feelings bombarded Judy's mind - apprehension, uncertainty. "Is he okay?"

"What, are you kidding me?" Clawhauser broke into a smile. "She's giving everyone a pay raise!"

Judy was taken aback by the news. "What?!"

"Yeah, her logic is that money is such a powerful motivator that we'll all work harder if we start getting more money! And she wants to see you about your - quote -" Clawhauser used air quotes. "'Upstanding job as a police officer at the ZPD.'" He started laughing as he talked. "Isn't that _great?!_ "

"Ah, yes," a familiar voice came from behind them. "Officer Hopps."

Judy turned around to see May there, not five feet in front her with a smile on her face and a badge on her chest.

"M-May?!" Judy sputtered disbelievingly. "But...but…"

May gave an understanding smile. "Let me guess: 'But you're just an innocent vixen who witnessed a major accident!' Well, deep cover assignments don't exactly let you wear your true identity on a name tag, now, do they?"

"Deep cover?" Judy still couldn't connect the dots. "Wha- Why?!"

"Oh, Hopps," May chuckled. "I've been undercover ever since Bellwether got locked away. I reported anything suspicious in the way of night howler to my superiors at the MIB. I still do."

"I've been approached by a guy who said he was from the MIB. Turns out he just wanted to steal classified prototypes," Judy informed her, her suspicion rising. "How do I know you're not in league with him?"

"Are you referring to Agent Brodi Noho?" May asked. "We don't know his real name, but his agent name - 'Brodi Noho' - is an anagram. He's been giving us quite a lot of trouble, and so far he's managed to evade us."

Judy thought about it for a second. "Fair enough. But why have you been put in charge of the ZPD when you're looking for night howlers under an alias?"

"I've been reassigned, Officer," May replied simply. "It happens often enough at the MIB. So...it would seem that I am your new chief."

"Welcome aboard, chief!" Clawhauser said, giggling.

"So, Officer Hopps," May said. "My office, please."

"If I might say, Officer Hopps, your record is possibly the best I've seen."

Judy shifted uncomfortably in her chair. She was still having trouble adjusting to her new chief. "Thank you, Chief," she replied.

"It would seem that you've been the most impactful animal on the war against night howler." May flipped through her file. "Three times, you've arrested key figures in night howler production, distribution, and sales. First, there was Dawn Bellwether. Then came Duke Weaselton. And lastly, you've put ex-Chief Bogo behind bars." She closed the file and smiled at Judy approvingly. "If anyone ever deserved some time off, it would be you, Officer."

Judy smiled halfheartedly. "Thank you, Chief."

"Now, I've heard rumors that Officer Wilde's condition is far less disastrous than he originally let on. I've also heard rumors that the two of you are...romantically inclined towards each other. Do you think he has the strength to work today?"

"Chief, if he had the strength to save a gopher from an asylum riddled with hostiles, it's safe to assume that he'll be here."

May smiled. "Thank you for your honesty, Officer. I'll let him know he needs to come in immediately. He insisted on working today, but I wanted your opinion, Officer."

"Chief, he _is_ coming into work at 9:30 AM," Judy asked. "His shift started three hours ago. _My_ shift started three hours ago. I should work overtime."

"And I'll be paying the both of you for serving your full shifts. You can leave when your shift normally ends. It's up to me how I pay our officers, and I think you two have enough of you minds without losing three hours' worth of your salary for saving all of Zootopia." May smiled at her. "Any questions?"

"Yes, Chief," Judy asked. "What's my next assignment?"

"Ah, yes, I'm glad you asked. You'll be patrolling with Wolford. Downtown District. The basics: traffic stops, responding to nearby calls, and so on and so forth. 10-4?"

"10-4, Chief." Judy got up and walked out of the chief's office. This city had taken a turn for the strange, all right. The new chief was an undercover MIB agent, a pop star was now savage, and still no one had any idea who had taken over Chief Bogo's position as the night howler leader. The thoughts stuck with Judy as she walked down to reception. When would it ever stop? She felt like she was in a fantasy world, where everything she knew was just an illusion, where reality wasn't reality. So many insane things had happened in the past month. She willed it to be over, willed it with all her might.

"Hopps?"

Wolford was calling to her. She scanned for the wolf, and found him with McHorn.

"Let's go," he said, understandably a bit impatient. "The tickets aren't going to write themselves!"  
Oh, gee, where have I heard _that_ one before? Judy thought to herself. "All right, all right," she said, beginning a light jog. If this was the foot they were going to start off on, she didn't think the ride was going to be all that enjoyable.

"You got everything you need?" he asked as she got closer.

"Yeah," she replied. "Let's get out there."

Wolford nodded to McHorn. "See you at closing time, McHorn."

McHorn gave a grunt of acknowledgement. Wolford walked to the door, and Judy followed suit.

"You know," the wolf said to the rabbit, "sometimes I think McHorn expresses himself just fine without words."

"I believe it," Judy replied as they exited the building.

"Hey, listen," Wolford started. "I know I haven't exactly been showing my appreciation for saving us from that pit."

"No thanks necessary, Wolford," Judy said. "Just doing my job."

"Seriously," Wolford said. "Even after I was horrible to Wilde, you two still helped us when we needed it most. You two are the bravest cops I've ever known."

"Wolford," Judy replied as they got in the car, "when our own are put in danger, it's our duty to save them. I was doing my job, nothing more."

"No, you don't understand." As the doors closed, Wolford gave her a serious look. "When you pulled me out of there, out of that awful place, I realized how much I would have missed if you had left me there. The day after you freed me, I made it to my son's sixth birthday. Now you tell me, how broken would he have been if, the day before his birthday party, his mother got a call that informed her of her husband's death?"

Judy was shocked. No words could explain how hard the truth hit her. She jumped at the realization that Wolford had grabbed her arm.

"So," he said, "believe me when I say I owe you. Big time."

Judy nodded. "Thanks, Wolford," she said. "And for what it's worth, I'm glad you didn't have to miss your son's sixth birthday."

"So am I," Wolford chuckled. "He's at that stage where he likes everything rocket ships. Got him one of those DIY junior scientist kits. Now he can't stop messing around with it."

"Has he blown up the fence yet?" Judy asked as Wolford started the car.

"Not yet, but I got insurance," came the joking reply. They pulled out of the station, ready to work.

"This is unit Romeo-Hotel 1, en route to the Downtown District," Judy said, talking into the police scanner.

 _"10-4, Romeo-Hotel 1,"_ Clawhauser replied. _"Stand by for orders."_

"Copy, Base," Judy confirmed. "Standing by for orders…"

* * *

Three hours later, and Judy was bored out of her skull. Almost nothing had happened, minus a few drivers neglecting to use turn signals and running stop signs on accident. Now she was sitting at a gas station, waiting for the tank to fill and for Wolford to come back from buying food. Yep, boring day indeed...But that was police work after all: long days of nothing exciting, broken up by a few moments of true stimulation. And while there was nothing else in the world she wanted to do for a living, sometimes it could get very, _very_ boring.

 _Chunk!_ The gas pump alerted Judy to the lack of gasoline pouring into her squad car's tank. She walked to the car, lifted the pump out of the tank (but not without tapping it against the tank a couple of times to get the last few drops out), and returned it to its rightful place. From her back pocket, she brought out her wallet and fiddled around for her card: the machine was hungry for plastic money. Once she found her card, she gave the machine what it wanted. It gobbled her card happily, making the transaction in the depths of its programming. It prompted her to request a receipt, which she accepted. Once the pump had gathered all of the required information, it spat her card back out and printed the receipt on a white piece of paper, both of which she took possession of. She cast another look at the store to see if Wolford was back. As if on cue, he opened the door with a plastic bag in his paw. Judy folded the receipt in two and put it in her wallet with the card. Then she waved to Wolford, who gave a two-fingered salute with his free paw as an acknowledgement. He held up the bag as he got within earshot.

"Someone order some additive-and-preservative-laden snacks?" he asked, in a very Nick-esque way.

Judy gave a sighing chuckle, laying her ears back and folding her arms across her chest. "What's in the care package?"

Now that Wolford was right in front of her, he began pulling stuff out of the bag. First came cheese crunchies, then chips, and to top it all off, two packages of baby carrots. Judy was a little surprised. "Wolford, are you trying to make a joke here?" she asked him.

Wolford gave her a confused head tilt before he realized what she meant. "Oh, no. Not at all! One pack for you, one for me. Trying to eat healthier."

Judy noticed that there was something still in the big bag. "Are you hiding something, or is gravity just pulling on the bag really hard?"

Wolford gave a sheepish chuckle and pulled out an Animal. But something was different with this one: instead of being green, the A logo was a somewhat light blue.

"Okay, why's it blue?" she asked.

"Low-carb. Whole can's only 15 calories and it tastes exactly the same as the green one," Wolford replied.

"Doesn't make it healthy."

"Makes it healthi _er_ , though."

Judy gave him a "Surrre" look.

"What?" he asked. "Cold turkey's not the way to go with this kind of thing."

Judy couldn't argue; for a bunny who had never struggled to eat healthy, she didn't know whether or not cold turkey was the way to go. "All right then," she said. "But I'm driving. I've seen Nick after he drinks this stuff. Not pretty."

Wolford gave a smile. "Fair enough."

Taking her carrot package and sliding back into the car, Judy started wondering what Nick was doing right now. What might have May stuck him with on his first day back? Surely she must have kept him in the office; at most, he was patrolling just like she was.

" _Attention all units near the Downtown hospital, we have a suspect fleeing the scene. Be advised: subject is on foot and is thought to be armed and dangerous. You'll be looking for a male pig wearing doctor's clothes."_

Judy grabbed the radio. "10-4, Base. Romeo-Hotel 1 moving to assist."

" _10-4, Romeo-Hotel 1. Mike-Mike 2 moving to provide backup."_

Well, then, Judy said to herself. Guess Nick got a patrol after all. " _10-4, Mike-Mike 2. Appreciate the thought."_

" _No problem, Romeo-Hotel."_

Judy put the radio down, but she realized it was probably not the thing to do in this situation. She turned and looked at Wolford. "I guess it'd be nice to know why we're going after this guy, huh?" she asked rhetorically. She grabbed the radio again.

"Uh, Base, what's the subject suspected of?"

" _Doctors say he killed one of their patients. No further information has been given."_

"Roger, Base. Romeo-Hotel 1 out." Judy could now let the radio rest in peace. "All right, let's go catch a murderer."

"Shall we?" Wolford said, hitting the siren button.

 _WWWWWWIIIIIIIIIIIYYYYYYYOOOOOOOOOWWWW! WWWWWWIIIIIIIIIIIYYYYYYYOOOOOOOOOWWWW!_ The siren cleared their way; cars pulled to the side and animals stopped cold in their tracks as they hightailed it to the hospital. Judy took a few deep breaths. It was time to put on the game face, to get those few moments of adrenaline, terror, and thrill she had been itching for the past three hours. It was time to show the world exactly what she had been chasing her entire life. It was time to uphold justice, uphold the law, and ensure the survival of civilization. The hospital beckoned, and Judy greeted it was a smile of confidence, like she was staring down an old foe. Twists and turns were naught but blurs as she got ready to find the lawbreaker, prepared to bring him in by any means necessary.

Wolford power slammed the brakes as they pulled into the hospital. Before Judy even had a chance to unbuckle her seat belt, she heard a voice.

"Officer! They went that way!"

The deer that had carted Max in came up to the car. Judy rolled down the window.

"Where'd he go?"

"Over that way!" the deer said, pointing in front of them. "He's probably long gone by now!"

"Thank you, sir," Judy said. She turned to Wolford. "Punch it."

"Wait!"

"What?" Judy asked, a little impatient. "What is it?"

"It was Max! They killed your biochemist!"

Dread covered Judy head to toe. "No," she said in denial. "It can't be."

"Get after him! He's doomed Zootopia!"

"Go, Wolford! Go!" Judy shouted at him. She couldn't believe it. Their one chance, one hope, gone…

That was it. She was done playing nice. It was time to show whoever was behind the night howler the severity of what he or she had just done. It was time for revenge, and who better to administer it than the bunny who had been there from the start, who had saved those fourteen mammals, who was responsible for the arrest of Duke Weaselton when he tried to run off to Doug with night howlers, who had every right to see this-

Judy was jerked from her thought as her seatbelt dug into her chest and stomach, her head being thrown forward due to Wolford's abrupt stop.

"That's him!" the British canine called out. "He's right there!"

Judy didn't need telling twice; she whipped her pistol out of its holster, leaped out of the car and got the pig in her sights, yelling, "Get down! Get down on the ground!"

The pig looked shocked, throwing his hooves up in surrender.

"Get down on the ground, man!" Judy warned. "I _will_ shoot you!"

Her target lay down on the ground as asked. Judy advanced towards the suspect. "Hooves behind your back! Hooves behind your back!" She heard Wolford calling it in.

"Romeo-Hotel 1, we have a visual on the suspect."

" _10-4,"_ came Nick's voice as an engine approached. " _You two look like you've got your hands full."_

"If you're feeling helpful, Mike-Mike 2, you can cuff him."

" _Hah, thought you'd never ask."_ Nick parked his car in the middle of the street to block traffic as they contained the situation and climbed out. "ZPD! Do not move!" he shouted aggressively.

"Come on, man!" Judy could barely hear the suspect, but his voice was undeniably innocent. "What, I can't grab a sandwich on my lunch break now?"

She watched as Nick detained the pig. Something was wrong. And if she could sense it, no matter what it was, then surely Nick could, too. But no; the fox carried out his arrest.

"No, you can still grab a PBJ and a bag of munchies whenever you want," she heard Nick say. "Now, murdering the only animal that could save an entire city? _That's_ a big no-no."

Wolford whispered in ear. "He's innocent. We've been duped."

"Yeah, I don't know why Nick's not picked up on that yet," Judy whispered back.

"What the Gazelle are you talking about?" the pig yelled. "I took the Hippotames Oath just like every other employee in there!"

And then Judy realized who was behind the entire situation. "Come on, Wolford," she said, going back to the squad car. "I know exactly who did it."

"Ooh, plot twist," the wolf said excitedly. "Let's go, already!"

The car burned the rubber off its tired as Judy put them on a course for the hospital. That deer. He was behind this. The sirens came on, and the road became clear, now Judy's playground. She couldn't let him get away. His side of the story could be a lead, and if Max was indeed dead, a lead could eliminate the night howler another way. She kept her eyes moving, constantly scanning for antlers or some other giveaway. But she wasn't fast enough; immediately after a right turn, Wolford called out, "There! The hoodie!" He grabbed the radio and configured it to the megaphones on top of the car and Judy kept a close eye on him.

"Attention, the male deer in the hoodie, stop walking. This is the ZPD."

Judy stopped the car and killed the siren. The deer complied.

"Slowly walk backwards and put your hooves behind your head," Wolford's next order boomed.

The suspect did exactly as Wolford commanded. Judy got ready for the worst-case scenario. While a shootout wasn't ideal, it was a possibility, and property damage and minor injury was preferable to death.

"Turn around slowly," Wolford uttered, following police protocol.

The deer did as he was told, rotating his hooves inch by inch. But when he could make eye contact with both of his eyes, he froze, unmoving.

"Keep going," Wolford said, a bit threateningly.

The deer did nothing.

" _Keep...going_." Now Wolford was threatening.

The solution presented itself to Judy. "Whoops. Forgot to turn the headlights off," she said sheepishly, flipping the switch.

Wolford gave her a confused look before speaking into the radio. "Turn all the way around, sir," he said.

The deer resumed his movement, spinning until he was facing them head-on.

"Get on your knees and stay down."

The deer fell to his knees. Wolford got out and readied his cuffs. Judy got out, as well, but brought her gun to ensure the cuffing process went as planned. Sure enough, the deer was absolutely malleable and agreeable, letting Wolford arrest him without a problem. His suspect in custody, Wolford nodded to Judy, who took it as her cue to get the car up and running again. She holstered her weapon and climbed back in, turning the key which she had conveniently left in the ignition.

The door opened behind her, and she heard the deer being led into the backseat.

"Watch your head, mate," Wolford guided him. Shortly after, the door closed and Wolford walked around the front of the car to get to the other side. Judy turned around to look at their suspect, who became considerably more nervous when he realized who was driving the car.

"Officer Hopps," she introduced herself. "That's Wolford right there," she added as her new partner sat down.

"Yep, that's me," concurred the canine.

"Long time no see," Judy said. "What's your name?"

"B-Brandon, ma'am," the deer replied, still nervous as ever.

"You look young enough to be a recent graduate, I'd say about two years," Wolford said. "Probably got a doctorate. Kind of a bright mind."

Brandon rubbed his neck. "Yeah, I was in my class's second decile."

Judy whistled. "That's pretty impressive, Brandon. So here's the question: What's a prodigy student doing getting into stuff like murder and evading the cops?"

Brandon started looking in random directions guiltily, his eyes welling with tears.

"Look, Brandon," Wolford persuaded the medic. "We're the good guys. We're here to help you. Whatever situation you're in, the cops are the ones that can help you."

Brandon stalled for a few seconds, as if he was debating whether or not to tell them the truth. "Fine," he said. "There was a guy who approached me about two months ago, and he said that he wanted me to report any unusual activity he saw."

"Wait a minute," Judy said, cutting him off." Do we get a description of this guy?"

"Yeah," Brandon said. "A Russian polar bear."

Judy had a bad feeling about Brandon's answer. "You're sure he was Russian?"

Brandon assumed a fake Russian accent. "He head deep rumbling voice end talked broken English much like this."

"And why did you do what he asked you to?"

Brandon began to talk in his normal voice again.

"He made me 'an offer I couldn't refuse.'" Brandon used air quotes.

"Wait a minute," Wolford said. "I've heard that saying somewhere before."

"What was the offer, Brandon?"

"He pulled a gun and said either I could refuse and get two to the head, back, and everywhere else, or I could do what he wanted."

"And you agreed."

Brandon waved his hooves at Judy in protest; her comment had sounded a bit disapproving. "You have to believe me! I didn't want to die! I still don't! I have my whole life ahead of me!"

"Okay, all right, Brandon, just calm down," Wolford said. "Nobody's blaming you. It's a perfectly natural response. Just tell us what happened today. Why did you kill Max?"

Brandon gave a watery snort of amusement. "I'm actually kind of proud of that one."

"What are you talking about?"

"Well, when you guys brought Max in, you said he could save all of Zootopia. Pretty sure that's unusual activity. So I called the Russkie. He ordered me to kill Max. But I'm not that stupid.

"I gave Max a...well, the alchemists of old called it a 'draught of mimic death.' Modern medicine refers to it as the Opossum Serum. Very few know of its existence, but those who do can make other medical professionals believe that a healthy, living animal has died. I gave Max a dose to take with his breakfast, and when it kicked in, I did all of the standard prosecute stuff to revive him...well, everything excepting the defibrillators. Those would have actually killed him.

"Now that Max was 'dead,' I could call the cops to investigate. But I couldn't have them show up and then realize it was me. I mean, what am I gonna say? 'April Fool's! I faked his death to get a Russian polar bear off my back!'? Not likely. So I described a suspect that looked pretty much exactly like John, the pig doctor your fox arrested. That way, I could keep Max from dying, the bear none the wiser, and myself out of jail."

Judy recounted the whole thing. "Max isn't dead?"

Brandon nodded. "Max is alive and kicking."

She sighed in relief, stress melting away like a buck-toothed snowman in the summer. "Okay, Brandon, here's what's going to happen," she said as she began driving. "We're not arresting you, but we're going to take you down to the station just in case your polar bear finds out. We'll keep you safe there until I can talk to the chief and work something out for you."

"I'm not gonna be in witness protection or anything, right?" came the somewhat panicked reply.

"No, I don't think so," Judy told him. "It'll be easier to just find your bear and arrest him."

"I'm just glad that I actually pulled it off," Brandon said. "That I could keep Max alive."

"You and me both, kid," Judy replied, with a blank look on her face as she thought deeply about their next move. "You and me both."


	19. Parental Guidance Suggested

"So…"

Nick popped a blueberry into his mouth as he talked, a beaten look on his muzzle.

"I arrested the wrong guy yesterday..." he said, counting with his fingers. "Max is alive, but nowhere near up to talking...whoever's behind all this stuff still isn't behind bars...and we have to investigate the possibility that Mr. Big's mafia hasn't fallen to ruins and is answering to, as aforementioned, whoever's behind all this stuff." He swallowed his blueberry. "Not good, Carrots. Not good."

Judy knew it wasn't good. How could it have been good? This was exactly what she had been trying to prevent ever since Wolford and McHorn got involved in that pile-up. It looked like the bad guys had won, in every way possible. The only hope of keeping the city safe was in a hospital bed, there was too much criminal activity for anyone to feel even the slightest bit comfortable, and even the entire police force was powerless to stop it. At least, she felt powerless to stop it. The world was working against her. The good guys couldn't catch a single break. Why was evil winning? "Are we doing something wrong, Nick?" she asked. "Every corner we turn, there's always an obstacle."

"Well, obstacles were made to be maneuvered around," Nick replied, preying on yet another blueberry. "Look, Max is in the hospital. Big deal. He'll recover. Plus, after you told the new chief what happened the first time we thought he was dead, the lucky sucker gets 24-hour police protection. Which means that Zootopia should be getting an antidote soon. Well, as soon as Max gets his strength back."

"Speaking of," Judy asked. "What do you think of the new chief?"

Nick narrowed his eyes in thought, like it was an odd question to be asked. "Honestly? I didn't see it coming. The question is, will the chief have any positive effect on the crisis?"

"What I meant was, do you think she'll turn out like...you know…"

"Chief Bogo?" Nick shook his head. "No, probably not. I hope not."

"And what about the two of you?"

Nick shot her a suave look and a raised eyebrow. "If you're thinking what I think you're thinking…"

Judy raised her own eyebrow in slight annoyance.

"Nope," he said simply. "Never gonna happen." He plucked another blueberry from his paw and tossed into his mouth. "Got everything I could ever want right here. Blueberries…"

Judy felt his free paw wrapping around the small of her waist, pulling her close enough to kiss.

"...and a mate that I love more than love myself," he whispered.

Judy chuckled. "If you think I'm that easy, get ready to be disappointed." She looked around her parents' farm. "Plus, kids could be literally anywhere. My brothers and sisters love to burrow. It's nature."

"So's attraction," Nick replied, still whispering in attempt to be seductive. It was working, but Judy didn't want to have to explain to her dad why she was using the farm as a breeding grounds with a fox.

"Look, Nick, there's a time and a place," she said, pushing his paw away from her teasingly, "and as committed I am to this relationship, time isn't now, and place isn't here. Besides, we're just here to say that we appreciate their supporting our relationship, especially with everything that's going on right now. If they catch us trying to give them grandkids, they'll flip, my dad worst of all."

Nick sighed quietly, a little disappointed. "Fine," he said. "But you can't delay this forever, Carrots."

"I know I can't," Judy replied. "Just...let's get the night howler wrapped up first. Then... then we'll see what happens."

"Okay," Nick agreed, pecking her on the lips. "I can wait." He suddenly looked very suspicious. "Hold on. Weren't we here to meet with Gideon again?"

Judy's mind scrambled for an excuse. "Well, that's no reason to not drop in and say hi to my folks, is it?"

She got an amused chuckle as her significant other loosened his grip and let her go. "Fair enough, Carrots. Fair enough."

Judy cast a glance towards her parents' temporary home. The construction of the new one wasn't scheduled to be done for at least nine months, and despite her parents' refusal of help ("No, not at all! We're doing just fine!" was their reply every time she asked if they wanted assistance), Gideon seemed to be getting into the work site easily enough. Probably the blueberry pies he kept supplying them with. It kind of hurt to know that her parents didn't want her help and turned to her old nemesis. All the same, however, it was nice to know that they weren't entirely on their own.

A chime pierced Judy's ears, and she looked to see Nick checking his phone. "Hmm," he said shortly. "I guess Max's starting to recover. Just got a text from Clawhauser. He's speaking in full sentences now."

"Really?" Judy asked, her spirits rising slightly. "That's great! He'll be able to tell someone how to produce the serum!" She looked at Nick to see his reaction, but what she saw wasn't at all predictable. For the slightest of moments, she saw a flash of disappointment, resentment in his eyes, like he didn't want Max to get better. But, just as quickly as it had come, it vanished into thin air. Nick smiled.

"Thank God," he said. "And not before time. It's like night howler is neverending. Kind of like heavy metal, now that I think of it."

Judy made a movement of confusion with her head, jerking it back quickly. "How is that relevant?"

Nick shrugged his shoulders. "It isn't, really. It just popped into my head."

The ground underneath Judy's feet moved, surprising her enough to make her jump two feet horizontally. One of her little brothers' heads poked the surface, looking between herself and Nick with a big smile on his face.

"Hi, Judy!" he said, covered in dirt. "Hi, Mr. Nick!"

"Hi, Bryce," Judy greeted him. At least, it looked like Bryce; the combination of dirt and multiple siblings made it hard for her to determine who it was without doubt. "Do you know where Mom and Dad are? Me and Mr. Nick are here to see them."

"Ooooo," Bryce taunted. "Are you gonna ask Dad if he can marry you?"

"What?" Judy's defensive side kicked in. "No! We just want to say hi!" She looked back at Nick, but he refused to make eye contact, gazing off into the vast fields of her father's crops. Why was he acting so weird? First the disappointment at Max's recovery, now he was dodging her gaze. It was like he couldn't control his emotions. If a fox was good at bluffing, then why was Nick suddenly transparent?

Ask him, the ever-present conscience said.

Shut up, she told it quickly. I'll deal with you later. "Listen, Bryce, we just want to say hi to Mom and Dad. You know...ask them if they need any help with anything."

Bryce rolled his eyes. "Where do you think they are, Judes? Dad's out in the field somewhere and Mom's looking after everyone else."

"Thanks, Bryce," Judy said. "Try not to stay under too long, all right?"

"Whatever." With that, Bryce disappeared into the ground. Judy turned to Nick.

"Well, I guess that means that we've got to be in two places at once," she said.

Nick nodded. "What say I talk to your dad, you talk to your mom?" he suggested.

Judy was extremely hesitant to follow through with Nick's plan. "Come on, Nick, do you really think that's a good idea?" she asked. "My dad's the one who gave me the fox repellent. And the fox taser. I doubt that he's going to like having a one-on-one conversation with a fox, regardless of whether or not said fox is his daughter's love interest."

"I don't know, Carrots," Nick insisted. "Seems like he's started becoming more and more accepting of me since I pulled you out of that fire. Plus, I think telling him that I saved the only animal who knows how to put Zootopia back on the 'safe and sound' side of the spectrum will score me at least a few Bunny Scout points."

Judy gave in, deciding to humor her boyfriend. "All right," she said a bit hesitantly, "if you really want to talk to him."

Nick pecked her on the cheek. "Thanks, hon." He walked past her and waded deeper into the vast Hopps farm, seeking out her father. Judy watched him go, his bushy tail swishing and twitching somewhat excitedly, like he had wanted to talk to her father for a while. Maybe he just wanted to handle the longer walking distance and leave her with less to do, as a sort of gift to her.

Can you talk now? the voice asked. Or do you want to stare at his lower torso some more?

Fine, Judy said. You wanna talk? Let's talk.

There's nothing to talk about, the voice pointed out. You wanted to ask him why he was emotionally bleeding. Now he's gone to talk to your father. I say go talk to your mother.

Oh, wow, Judy retorted with biting sarcasm. I totally wouldn't have guessed to do that.

"Judy!"

Judy looked in the direction of her mother's faint voice. There was a dot in the distance that looked like it was jumping up and down in the distance. Judy gave a few great bounds with her legs to close the distance between her and the jumping dot, to get a good look at what it was. As she got closer, she could make out a pair of gigantic ears. It was a rabbit, definitely.

"Judy!"

It was her mother! Judy waved as she ran. "Mom!" she yelled out in greeting.

"Hi, honey!" her mother called back, hopping towards her daughter. "What are you doing all the way out there?"

"Oh, we were just trying to find you and Dad!" Judy said, the gap between them closing much more rapidly now. "Then Bryce told us Dad was out in the fields and you were trying to look after everyone else!"

"So where's Nick?" her mother asked.

"Talking with Dad!" Judy was no more than fifty feet from her mother now. "He thinks they'll hit it off now that Nick had tried all he can to show that he's not a threat."

"Well, honey, if one of them lashes out, the other's going to have an easy time protecting himself," her mother said in her normal voice, for they were within arm's reach. With one big leap, Judy threw her arms around her mother.

"Hey, Mom," she said again.

"Hey, yourself," her mom chuckled, squeezing her. "How's my little bunny cop doing?"

"Good," Judy replied. "How about you?" She cast a look at the trailer the family was living in. "Everyone okay with the rental?"

Her mother turned around and looked at it, too. "Yeah," she sighed a little unhappily. "It's not nearly big enough to fit everyone in, but we've managed. Some of the older kids are sleeping outdoors on that huge mattress we used to bring with us when we went camping. The big ones- Michael, Janet, Brad, Hana, and all the other fifteen-plus kids - are using their sleeping bags. We somehow figured out how to get all of the really little ones into the trailer itself."

An unprecedented pang of guilt slapped Judy across the cheek. Why did she have to be a cop? Why couldn't she have settled for carrot farming? If she had stayed within the family business, maybe she wouldn't have had to witness the death of her old home. She looked at the ground vacantly. "This is all my fault," she said quietly.

"Oh, no, honey," her mother said worriedly, grabbing her arm. She looked at her mother in response, somewhat startled by the movement. "None of this is your fault."

Judy gave a bitter chuckle. "How else would they have found out where you lived? I was the one who cuffed Bellwether in the first place. If I hadn't visited you…" She felt a sob creeping up her throat, but she was too late to stop it.

Her mother pulled her into a tender hug. "Sweetie, that Bellwether person was going to raze Zootopia to the ground if you hadn't detained her in the first place."

"But I should have known it was dangerous to come when we-" She hesitated. Could she tell her mother about their last mission?

"When you what, hon?" Her mom was pressing her for details.

Judy took a breath; she supposed it would be harmless to declassify information on a case that was already closed. After all, the world was pretty much ending anyway. "All right, Ma, I'll tell you, but you have to promise me you'll keep quiet about this."

"Absolutely," her mom said, perhaps a little too quickly, as if she didn't understand what Judy meant.

"Mom, I don't think you know what I mean," Judy warned. "When I say keep quiet, I mean that you can't speak to another soul, living or dead, about this. Ever."

Her mother looked at her with a serious face on and said, "Judy, you have my promise. This is just between you and me."

"Okay," Judy agreed, the guilt slowly fading with each word. "I believe you. Here goes. Nick and I were assigned to two missing officers. Originally, they were the only two other animals involved, but we found out that one of them had been in debt to Mr. Big, the leader of the mafia. When…" She paused. How would she put this nicely and without motherly panic? "When we asked if we could stay with you guys, we had just made it out of Mr. Big's compound. I guess they must have tracked us here." The guilt was gone, replaced with...what emotion was this? Indifference? No. No, it wasn't that. Boredom? Perhaps, but- no. There was nothing to be bored with.

"Judy? Honey? You still with me?" she heard her mom ask.

"Huh?" Judy asked automatically. "Oh, yeah. Yeah, I am."

"So is the investigation ongoing?"

An idea popped into Judy's head. But just as suddenly, doubt leaped to the front of her mind. After all, she had just said that she had already endangered her family. Surely there was a better alternative. There had to be another way…but what was it? A friend? Perhaps, but they might not be of great use. Nick? Maybe, but she didn't want to have to go all the way back. Would it hurt to ask? Would her mother shut her down just as quickly as her father had judged Nick for their ancient rivalry, tainted with death and blood and broken bones? Judy prepared herself for her mother's reaction.

"Listen, Ma," she said, grabbing her mom's paw and squeezing it. "Nick and I...well...we have a case, and...uh...I was wondering if...we could maybe, um...stay here? It'll only be for a day or so," she said hurriedly, "and there's no threat to you guys. When we're done with our search, we'll go straight to the ZPD."

Her mother gave no hesitation. "Are you kidding?!"

Judy recoiled instinctively. "Look, Mom, I'm sorry about the whole-"

"Of course you're welcome here! Any time!" Her mother grabbed her and sucked her into yet another hug. "I just wish you'd spend more time here."

"Well, tell that to Dad," Judy replied, a little miffed. "He's the one that keeps saying he doesn't want my help."

"Honey, you just have to remember that Stu's too hard-headed for his own good sometimes," her mother said, loosening her grip. "If you want to help, don't hesitate to ask. Okay?"

"Mmmkay," Judy said, looking at her mother again, who gave a nostalgic sigh.

"My little girl, all grown up," she said with a smile.

"Yeah, well, what about everyone else my age?" Judy asked. "Do they get special attention, too?"

Judy's mom shook her head with a chuckle. "Most of them are out in the fields all day, working with your dad or helping me look after the little ones. I see them plenty. The only two I don't see anymore are you and Mason, who went off to be a game programmer."

Now it was Judy's turn to chuckle. "He was always fascinated by those stupid video games."

"Well, it's where all the money's at, I guess," came the response. "Of course, he tries to visit, calls us asking when he can come over and whatnot, but he barely ever makes it. Always with some kind of work something-or-other. Not that it's his fault, of course, he's always been such a sweetheart."

Judy remembered Mason. It was true; he had always been the teddy bear of the family. He was a lover, even though he looked like a fighter. Kind of like her dad. Speaking of…

"You know, we should probably go check on the boys," she said, "Make sure they haven't gone at each other yet."

"Well, your father's shotgun hasn't gone off, so that's a good sign," her mom replied, looking off into the distance as if she could see her husband. "All the same, you're right. It'd be a good idea to say hello. Four heads better than two, then?"

"Yeah, no kidding. Fox and a rabbit - honestly, if I didn't know my father as well as I do, I wouldn't fear for Nick's safety." It was true, and Judy knew it; her father may be a lover, but he would protect his family just like anybody else, and there had been a few occasions in the past when he had injured, sometimes severely, predators who had wandered across his property. There was a real chance that he might mistake one of Nick's words as malicious and try to shoot the harmless fox. She pulled out her phone, unlocked it, and brought up her dad's contact, pushing the MuzzleTime button. It rang once, twice…

The camera fumbled, and the audio was staticky for a few moments, but soon enough she saw her father's cheery face taking up almost the entire screen.

" _Hey, Jude!_ " he said. _"Where are you? Looks like you're in the field somewhere."_

"Yep," Judy replied. "Yep, me and Ma here have been talking. How's it going over at...wherever you are?"

" _It's going okay,"_ her father said. _"Nick's over here, we've been talking, too. Seems you guys have a case and you want to stay here for a few days."_

"Yeah, Mom gave us the go-ahead."

" _I gave Nick the go-ahead, too,"_ her father reported, oddly cheery, like he was faking it. _"Looks like we'll be hosting dinner for you two! Really glad to have you guys here!"_

" _Oh, no, please, Mr. Hopps,"_ Judy heard Nick politely protesting in the background. _"We don't want to be a bother."_

Apparently, her mom had heard it, as well, because all of a sudden, her mother was trying to fit herself into the camera's view. "Stu, tell Nick that he's not going to impede. I've got to make make dinner for two hundred and fifty kids with bottomless stomachs, not to mention the two of us. Adding two more mouths to feed isn't going to be a problem in the slightest."

" _The wife says you're not going to be a bother, Nick,"_ she heard her dad saying. _"Come on!"_ he added, trying to get Nick to give into peer pressure. _"Bonnie's cooking's to die for!"_

Nick nodded his head from side to side in the top left corner of the picture. _"All right,"_ he agreed, though he sounded a bit reluctant, as if he was trying as hard as possible not to be detrimental. _"As long as you're sure I'm not going to be a nuisance…."_

"All right, then!" Judy's mom said happily. "We'll see you at dinner!"

Judy became confused at her mother's statement. "At dinner?" she asked. "Why not now?"

"Because I have to start making dinner twenty minutes ago," her mom replied.

Judy was still lost. "Ma, it's eleven-thirty in the morning."

"Exactly," came the answer. "You thought it was bad when you were growing up? At least you and your generation knew when to stop eating. These days, it's food, food, food and pretty much nothing else."

Judy was about to offer her help, but Nick beat her to the punch.

" _Let me know if there's anything I can do to ease the burden, Mrs. Hopps."_

"Oh, it's not that bad," her mom waved him off politely. "I've gotten kind of used to it by now. You two just go ahead and rest. You know, work on your cop stuff. That's more important than helping me in the kitchen, I promise you. Keep us all safe, huh?"

" _Will do, Mrs. Hopps. Say, Judy,"_ Nick said, now turning the conversation, and his head, towards her, _"where should we go for that, do you think?"_

"Uhhh…" Judy was thrown off guard. It was such an odd question for Nick to ask, especially since, now that their house burned down, she didn't have an answer. "I don't know," she said after a brief pause. "There's not a lot of places to sit down and do work anymore."

" _Well, how about the car?"_

Judy pondered it. "I guess…" she said slowly. "It's probably the best option. Our only other choices are the field and the trailer, both of which aren't very helpful."

" _Okay, then, it's settled,"_ Nick said. _"I'll see you at the car."_

"All right, Nick. See you. Love ya."

" _Love ya too, Carrots."_ Nick walked out of frame as Judy watched her father shot him a distrusting look. That was all it took to trigger her.

"Wow, Dad," she said, her voice rich with anger. "Wow."

" _What?"_ her dad asked.

"You know what!" It was like he wouldn't settle for anyone, least of all Nick. What, did he think she wasn't ready to take on more responsibilities yet? "You might try and sell him that lie, but I don't buy it! You act all cheery around him, and when he turns around, you go right back to this whole 'natural predator' thing!"

" _Sweetie, I have no idea what you're-"_

"It's like you don't even care about him!" Judy was past indignancy; she was now angry like she had never been angry before. "You don't know his story, his family, his loves and hates! You don't know him at all!"

" _Jude,"_ Her father sounded hesitant and guilty, like he knew he was wrong and was trying to weasel his way out of it. _"There's no problem with being cautious. Plus, he was at the dinner with Gideon, and I got to know him then."_

"That's a lie, Dad, and you know it," Judy bit back. "You live in a world where everyone is equal, yet you can't accept the fact that foxes aren't evil. Come on, Dad! Just give him a chance already!"

Her father's muzzle looked like a mess of emotions: anger, guilt, fear, defensiveness. What he settled on, however, was not what she expected.

" _You're right, Judy,"_ he admitted, sighing in what seemed like a mix between acceptance and shame. _"Maybe I've been too judgmental. Maybe I do need to try broadening my spectrum. I just...I don't know why. After all this time of telling you and your siblings to beware of foxes, it just feels right to...you know...be super careful of them."_

Judy calmed herself. She might have been right about her dad needing to accept Nick for who he was, but in the back of her head, she knew that she had probably been much too harsh on her poor papa bunny. "Sorry for going off on you like that, Dad," she acknowledged her excess hostility.

" _No, honey, no, you're right."_ Her dad gave her a smile. _"I'll try to learn more about him during dinner tonight."_

Judy smiled; finally, they were getting somewhere. "Thanks a lot, Dad."

Her dad smiled back at her through the phone. " _No problem, hon. Might as well give him a chance. I mean, I never really got a first impression of him, even when you guys were here last time. And I have to say, although I still don't trust him completely, a fox pulling a wounded rabbit out of a burning building gives him quite a few reputation points with the rabbit's family."_

Judy laughed. "True."

Her dad waved goodbye. _"All right, honey. I'll be in the field until about 6:00. Then we'll see exactly how you and Nick go together."_

Judy waved in response. "Bye, Dad. Love you." She brought the phone to her nose and rubbed her snout across it a few times, giving her dad the illusion of a traditional rabbit kiss. Her dad did the same, bringing his nose to the phone and shaming his head from side to side. "Love you, Judy," was his response.

Judy pushed the red button to end her call, and for a second or two, her father's unusually large nose kept itself on the screen before fading away, melting into her contact list. She stared at his name..."Dad." It was no longer a reminder of her legal guardian, the one who was paranoid of a vulpine invasion, who always jumped at shadows, thinking a hungering fox had decided to revert to his primal prey. It was the name of a new beginning, perhaps. A name that she could say without the slightest bit of shame. How many times had her father tried to get her to stay in her comfort zone? And now he was the one taking a wild leap of faith because she convinced him to do so. Finally, she wasn't the crazy one all the time. Well, now she had some competition in the family, at least. Everyone other relative liked staying at home, where it was safe, and having nothing to do with threatening animals. It was only fitting that the most paranoid of her bloodline sided with her, attempting to coexist with his natural foe. Maybe, just maybe, even if it was one rabbit getting along with one fox, she could open up the family to new ideas. Foxes weren't any less living as rabbits, or deer, or pigs, or any other animal. Each one was...right. So what if there were a few predators that broke the law for a living? Some prey did the exact same thing. Predators were entitled to the same rights as everyone else. With this new mindset, Judy continued in the direction of her car, ready to work with Nick…

And ask him those questions that, little did she know, would have complex, dangerous answers.


	20. A Fight, Dinner, and Another Fight

Nick was already at the car, his swishy, bushy tail and furry butt (which, in Judy's opinion, was more than mildly attractive) smothering the hood.

Typical.

"You planning on working anytime soon?" she asked him.

Nick chuckled, forcing himself off the car with his legs. "Waitin' on you, slowpoke," he replied. "These assignments aren't going to complete themselves."

Judy nodded with a smile, but it was a deceitful smile: she wanted Nick to think she would go along with the work, but in reality, she wanted answers. Juicy, honest answers. She got in the car (but couldn't resist giving Nick's tail a teasing grab beforehand) and looked at the new stack of papers between her and the passenger's seat. She stared in both surprise and dread.

"Cheese-and-crackers," she commented. "May's not messing around, is she? At the very least, Bogo never gave us this amount of paperwork at once." She was expecting an answer from her partner, but soon realized that Nick was just now opening his door. He slid in, none the wiser, and saw her face.

"Yeah, I know," he smiled. "Bogo never did this to us, did he?"

"That's what I said!" Judy said.

"Oh," Nick replied, a little quietly. "Sorry."

"It's fine," Judy told him, feeling a little guilty for coming off as angry as she had. "I didn't mean to say it like that."

Nick gave a forgiving frown and a dismissive wave of the paw. "I know you're not that mad, anyway. Besides, we're here to work, right? Nothing bad."

Judy was silent. It felt unpleasant and awkward, but really, what was she supposed to say? "It's all right?" No. Nothing was right. She fidgeted in her seat and inhaled deeply. "Well," she started slowly, "how do I put this?"

"Oh, _please_ ," Nick scoffed. "I'm your partner, Carrots. Put it as bluntly as you want."

"I think there are some things you aren't telling me."

Nick gave her a look, but it wasn't a look Nick gave when he thought she was being weird; if anything, he seemed concerned, like he knew the conversation they were about to have would be an uncomfortable one. "What kind of stuff are we talking about? What do you think I've been keeping from you?" he asked, seeming as casual as he could.

"You just...there's been a few cases where your behavior's been suspicious at best. Not that you're doing anything illegal!" Judy added hastily, seeing Nick's confused reaction. "You just haven't been acting...normal."

Nick raised his eyebrow, still visibly confused. "Soooo...what? You think I'm some dude in a FURRIE impersonating myself? Because I can tell you things that only you and I would know."

Judy chuckled. "Well, I suppose you haven't been acting _that_ odd. But…" she trailed off. What should she start with.

"But…?" Nick replied in a way that prompted her to finish her thought."

Judy closed her eyes and shook her head, a frown present on her face as she tried to regain her train of thought. "When we heard that Max was getting better, you looked kind of disappointed. Is there any reason you wouldn't want him to recover?"

"Well, Carrots, that's a fair question," Nick explained. "If Max gets better, then we have to take his statement, wade through more paperwork, and then, more likely than not, give a statement to the press." He shook his head in an apparent scramble for words and said, "It's a whole new load of time at work that I could be spending with you."

"And that's another thing," Judy said, sounding a little hostile again. "You've been more clingy and deceptive than usual."

"Deceptive? I haven't been deceptive."

"Yeah!" Judy cried out. "You explicitly told your doctor to keep your condition under wraps! You tried playing the hero when you heard about Max's recovery, and like I said, you want to be with me all the time! And that's great that you want us to spend more time together, Nick, but I can't very well be around someone who says he care about me and then lies to my muzzle!"

Nick looked much redder than usual, presumably blush emanating from the white fur on his chin. He licked his lips nervously. "Uh, Judy…" he gave a cautious chuckle. "There's a… _very_ legitimate reason for all of this."

"Well, if there's a legitimate reason, why don't you tell me?" Judy replied immediately, not in the mood for any of Nick's sweet talk.

"Because...well...it's a surprise."

Judy's brain red-flagged his answer. "Are you _serious_?! You can't tell me anything because it's a 'surprise?' That's BS and you know it! I don't care what you've been doing, even if it _is_ illegal! Just an honest confession, that's all I'm asking!"

Nick started looking around the interior of the car evasively, but something was different. Were those tears in his eyes? Judy tried not to let sympathy show. What was he so desperately trying to keep from her? "Please, Judy, just trust me. Isn't that what relationships are for, anyway? Trust?"

"Yeah," Judy said indignantly. "Yeah, they are, Nick. But you know what? I can't _trust_ -"

"-a fox?"

Nick's somewhat angry answer stopped her short. How was she supposed to respond to that? She took a deep mental breath and bounced back.

"-I can't trust an animal who doesn't tell me the truth," she finished.

Nick looked like he was barely containing his rage, an observation that was backed up by his voice, which quivered in a combination of tears and anger.

"I'd _love_ to tell you, Judy," he said, looking her in the eyes swallowing before he went on. "But _trust_ me…" He took a deep breath. "It won't hurt you in any way. Please. Just roll with me on this one. I've been waiting for-" He cut himself short and looked down. "Never mind. It's…"

With no warning, he threw his door open and heaved himself out of the car, slamming the door furiously. That was far from what Judy was expecting; adapting to her situation, she mimicked Nick, though her door was shut much less forcefully. She held out her paw and yelled "Nick!", for her partner had taken a couple big, hurried steps that put him quite a few yards ahead of a first down. He spun around and advanced on her threateningly, primal fear prompting her heart to race, her adrenaline to spike, her nose to twitch, and her big foot to thump.

"Okay, look, Nick," she said quickly, trying to soothe the angry fox. "Everyone gets pissed sometimes, but I didn't mean anything by it. I-I was just curious!"

"'Just curious?'" Nick asked disbelievingly, snarling with indignance. " _'Just curious?!'_ You know what, I'm getting really, _really_ irritated by this. All of the second-guessing my intentions, all the distrusting me, just 'cause I'm a _fox._ After all of the near-death we've been through? I pulled you out of a burning building, for God's sake!" He had gotten frighteningly close to her, close enough to strike if he wanted. Just like she had the last time this happened, she got her fox repellent ready. Nick hesitated, but didn't stop talking.

"So you tell me, Judy...What...in _the_ hell...will it take for you to figure out that I love you? I'm keeping this secret from you for your own good. Got it?"

What Judy said next was the bombshell that she thought would break all hopes of their relationship working out.

"That's just it. I can't trust you, Nick. You were born that way."

Nick's hardened features receded for just a moment, but they came back even more ferocious.

"I should have left that night howler in Bellwether's gun," he bit back.

Judy was frozen in place. She hadn't even meant what she had said, and she couldn't process it. There was no way to take it back. All she could do was stay there, mouth slightly open, as Nick walked past, making sure to bump into her angrily. But she was a shell, nothing but a captive in her own mind. A few seconds later, and she moved.

Her nose twitched. Her lip quivered. Her eyes blinked rapidly.

* * *

"So how was work, Judy?"

"Hmm?" Judy looked up from the abyss she had been staring into for the past fifteen minutes and into her mother's happy eyes. "Yeah, it's fine. Er, it _was_ fine," she lied. "We finished what we needed to."

But her mother, like every other on the planet, knew something was off. "What's wrong, honey?" she asked, putting her paw on Judy's shoulder.

Judy returned the gesture. In hindsight, sitting next to her mom while she was in a tough spot with her boyfriend wasn't the best of ideas. If reality TV taught her anything, moms and daughters shed many a tear over relationship complications. She started her improvised speech.

"Well, I don't know exactly. Maybe it's just everything that's been going on lately." She sighed. "I mean, first we almost died and you guys became homeless, then we had to arrest the chief, and now Max, who's the only animal that knows how to stop the night howler craziness, is in the ICU under 24-hour police protection. And then Nick…" Judy trailed off. Uh oh. If she told her mother that he had started at her, their relationship would be over like that, mostly due to one overprotective Stuart Hopps. And, really, she wanted to be with Nick for the rest of her life. Judy cast a glance at her significant other, who seemed to be oblivious to her voice. In fact, he seemed to be talking to all of her brothers and sisters at once without missing a beat.

"Mr. Nick, what's it like being a cop?"

"It's like being a superhero. I get to stop bad guys and help people."

"Mr. Wilde, what was that guitar technique you were talking about?"

"Pinch harmonics. If you want a screaming guitar solo, play a pinch harmonic. Most pros call them squealies."

"Officer Wilde, didn't you say you were a comp sci major in college?"

"Yep. Why do you ask?"

"I need a bit of help with a side project of mine. I've got a sound file that's throwing an out-of-bounds exception."

It was like Nick was the cool uncle that had all of these stories and this cavern of knowledge that made him the center of attention. She knew he didn't do it on purpose, but she couldn't help but feel a bit jealous. She used to be the one everyone fawned over when she came home. Even if it was just a quick "drop-by-and-say-hi" situation, everyone wanted to talk to her. But then jealousy was replaced with guilt, and guilt made way for trust. There he was, getting along with a bunch of rabbits he had never met before. And normally her father would have told his entire next of kin to steer clear of Nick, but Judy's guess was that this was his way of trying to improve relations with the fox. The exact opposite of what she felt she was doing.

"Nick what, honey?"

Judy gazed off into the abyss again for a few seconds.

"...Nick's always there." Always loyal, always faithful, always caring. No matter the task, he was there. Their escape from Big's compound, rescuing Max...he always found a way to do right by his partner. She poked at her food, her eyes opened for what felt like the first time. If Nick had wanted Judy to die, he had had plenty of opportunities to do it in the past month. She was mad at herself, mad for following her father's old advice. She lowered her voice.

"I feel so bad, Ma," she whispered, looking at Nick as she talked. "All Nick's done is be nice to me, and I just have to convince myself that he's got some kind of ulterior motive, just cause he's a fox."

She watched his ear prick up at this, and his smile slowly slipped into a frown, but he was back up and running normally in no time.

"Yeah, I just love the fact that double-bass pedals give you so much more creative potential," he resumed the drumming discussion he was having with Amber, one of Judy's more musically inclined teenage sisters. "The guy from Five Pawpad Death Slap is the reason I actually got a DB pedal."

Judy shook her head. "Classic Nick," she muttered. "Gets a punch in the muzzle, and just turns the other cheek."

"That's because he loves you, Judy," her mom offered a reason. "Love makes you more accepting of another animal's mistakes. Trust me, I tolerate a lot more of your father's flaws than most others do."

Judy chuckled. "You must hear him say 'I'm sorry' a lot, then."

Her mother smiled. "I do. But it doesn't change the fact that I love him."

Judy felt better about her situation after the talk. Much, much better. Knowing that Nick wasn't as bad as she thought gave her a relaxing feeling. Maybe she should talk to him after dinner. "Thanks, Ma. It helped."

"Glad I could make it better, Judy."

"Somethin' the matter, you two?"

Judy jumped a bit as her father's tones snuck up behind her. He lay a large bowl of carrot stew on the center of the table, which was instantly poured into much smaller bowls by an amalgam of rabbit children, each clambering towards the liquid gold in a free-for-all fashion.

"No, nothing much," Judy said, pulling her best cheery-self disguise out of the box. "You holding up well?"

"Yep!" her father replied, just as cheerfully. "Everything's a lot better." He lowered his voice. "Especially since I've been a bit more trusting with your cop buddy."

Judy gave him a look and said jokingly, "What, he's just a 'cop buddy?' You can't spring for 'boyfriend?'"

He chuckled and waved his finger at her scoldingly. "Now watch it, you. I will turn this car around."

"Oh, no, you won't," she replied. "I took the keys."

"Okay, this is getting ridiculous," her father observed. "I was being funny. When did car keys come into the picture?"

Judy shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know. It just sounded right at the time."

"All righty then." Her father raised his eyebrow in a confused fashion. "I'll take your word for it."

"Ooooooooohhh!" came one of her younger siblings' voices. "Judy loves Niii-iick! Judy loves Nii-iick!" he said in a singsong voice.

Judy felt herself go red as she whipped around and said, "Keep your ears out of my business, Drew!"

"Catch me if you can, Ju-ju!" Drew taunted. The tween bunny jumped out of his seat and darted around to the other side of the table.

"Hey!" her mother shouted. "Drew Nathaniel Hopps, so help me, I will ground you for a month! Get back in your seat and eat your supper!"

Judy shrunk her head into her shoulders, smiling sheepishly and looking at Nick. He looked over at her with a raised eyebrow and an unamused look. Then a smile spread over his face, and he flashed her a paw whose digits started waving rhythmically. He puckered and gave her a floating kiss. Huh. Guess he was a forgiving soul after all. That, or he was just being sarcastic. With Nick, you could never really tell. But in any case, Judy felt good. Good that, even if it was an accident, she was somehow able to elicit a positive response from Nick.

The world was a little bit righter now.

* * *

Judy lay back on the grassy knoll and stared up at the night sky. It was rare to get moments like these, especially if you were single, living in a dank, musty apartment, and slammed with police work every day. The constellations were dancing, tempting Judy to reach out and try to touch them. It was like nature's fireworks, and she just had to give it a shot. She felt her brain tell her arm to move upwards, and her arm obeyed. Her eyes could see her arm and paw slowly enter the corner of their vision, creeping up to a ninety degree angle with the ground.

"You know you can't touch 'em, right?"

She gasped, startled, as Nick flopped himself into the same position she was in - without the arm, of course. He sighed contentedly, paws interlocked behind his head in a makeshift pillow, staring up almost as reverent as she was.

"God…" he sighed, awestruck. "So many memories keep flooding back into this empty little skull of mine. With every miniscule hint of the past - a smell, a sound, a sight - and my head just goes right back to something or other. Like that constellation right there." His paw joined hers, floating up in front of him, indicating a group of stars that looked like...Judy tilted her head and narrowed her eyes scrutinously.

"Olion," Nick explained. "It was one of the first things I saw in the sky after…the accident."

Judy looked over at him, confused. Had he already let their argument fly? "What, are you not mad at me anymore?" she asked.

Nick took his eyes off Olion and returned her gaze, smiling warmly. "Listen, Carrots, I don't hold grudges for that kind of stuff. Physical altercations…" His smile faded slowly. "That's something else entirely."

His eyes found their way back up to Olion. "That's why I loved the night sky as a kid. All of little Nick's hopes and dreams were up there. The only reason I didn't run away that night at the Ranger Scouts was because of Olion. Well, that...and...a random dude off the street."

* * *

 _"If you thought we'd ever trust a fox without a muzzle, you're dumber than you look."_

 _Blurry stairs. Teasing laughter. Stinging eyes. Just get away, just get away…_

 _I see my paws slam themselves into the double doors of 2389 Grant Street, my legs flying underneath me in fear. I stumble down the steps and turn to the right, hoping I can catch my breath at the side of the stairs. As I throw myself against the wall in fright and sadness, I can hear them yelling after me._

 _"Awww, is he gonna_ cry _?"_

 _I can't take it anymore. This...stupid...muzzle! I claw at it and claw at it. Come off. Please. Please just come off. I grab it from the back of my head and pull it over my ears. Yes! It's off! I rip it off my snout, my paws shaking in fear as I look at it in anger and disgust._

 _"Rrrrrrgh!"_

 _I throw it as hard as I can, watching it clatter and skid on the concrete in front of me. But I can only keep my mad face on for a few more seconds. Without knowing it, a lump rises in my throat. A sob._

 _I can't keep myself from crying anymore. One sob comes, then two. Soon, I feel a hot tear roll down out of the corner of my left eye. I can't stop it. Slowly, I sink down onto the cold, hard ground and rub another tear out of my right eye. It musses up the fur on my arm, but I don't care. Why? What was wrong with me? Why don't they like me?_

* * *

"I've heard this story before, Nick." Without even trying, Judy had already been rude to him. She realized the mistake almost immediately and tried to make up for it. "Ah, jeez, Nick, I'm so sorry."

"Hmm," Nick replied simply. "Well, if your attention span will wait, you'll hear the uncut version." It was an insulting comment, but good-hearted and playful in nature. Judy wanted to hear the rest of his story, so she shut up and waited for the fox to start again.

* * *

 _"Hey, kid. What's the problem?"_

 _I feel my ears prick up. My sobs fade away as I pull my muzzle out of my paws to look at whoever's talking to me._

 _A fox. A grown fox. He's giving me this weird look. Something like a mix between compassion and sadness. His head's tilted at me curiously. That's all I can see before the sobs come back. I try to keep them away, but they just keep coming. I bury my face in my paws, ashamed._

 _"Ah, come on, kid," the stranger says. "What's the matter?"_

 _I sniffle, swallowing my sobs as I try to explain it to him._

 _"I-those k-kids…" I break down for the third time._

 _"Hey," the fox says. "Hey hey hey hey hey."_

 _I watch his shadow, cast by the streetlamp, as he squats down and taps my shoulder lightly. Curiosity forces me to look into his eyes. They're tired, but kind. And blue. I like blue. They look like ocean water. I like the ocean. Without realizing it, I stop crying, stunned by his eyes._

 _"Something about kids, huh?" he asked. "Was it the Ranger Scout kids?"_

 _Wait. How did he know. "How did you know that?"_

 _He smiles. "Kid, you're dressed in the uniform. It was kind of easy."_

 _I look down at my tear-stained uniform. Huh. Guess he was right. "Wow, mister! You're smart!"_

 _"Ahhh,' he waved it off. "We're foxes. We spot things like that. Now, what did these kids do?"_

 _The tears come back again. They won't stop, but I try my best to stop from sobbing as I tell the story._

 _"I was…g-going to join t-the Scouts, but they...w-wouldn't let me. B-because...Because I'm a fox."_

 _The stranger's jaw moves angrily, but he doesn't do anything else. "Because you're a fox?"_

 _I wipe a tear from my eye. "Mmmhmm," I whimper._

 _"Well, listen to me, son," he says. "What's your name?"_

 _"N-Nick," I reply through a sob. "Nick Wilde."_

 _The stranger smiles again. "Nick, huh? I love that name."_

 _I look up at him. "Really?"_

 _"Really. In fact, my cousin's named Nick."_

 _"Is your cousin a fox, mister?"_

 _"No, no he's not," the stranger replies. "He's actually a hippopotamus. But man...Nick has such a nice ring to it. Nicholas...makes me think of the valiant knight that fights the bad guys, scales the castle wall, and sweeps his lady off her feet."_

 _"Gee, that's cool, mister!" My sadness is gone now. All that I care about is talking with this fox, whatever his name was._

 _"Now, you say that those kids didn't let you join the Ranger Scouts?"_

 _Sadness comes back a little. "Yes, sir," I mumble._

 _"Well, don't let that get you down!" he said. "Cause you know what, Nick?" He poked me in the stomach with confidence. "Some day you're going to show them what for. You're gonna say, 'I'm gonna do something!' And then they'll doubt you, but you know what? It doesn't matter what they think. Listen, Nick: if you're good enough for you, then that's all that really matters."_

 _"Really?" I ask. It sounds great!_

 _The fox nods. "Really. You know what I see?"_

 _"A loser!"_

 _It's the kids from the Scouts. "Go away!" I yell. "You're just a bunch of meanies!"_

 _"Oooooh," the little moose taunted. "I'm soooooo scared!"_

 _I look at the stranger, trying to ask for help without saying anything. He rises to his feet and folds his arms. Wow. He has big arm muscles. I look at the kids. All five of them look a little scared, but they keep being mean._

 _"Oooooooh!" the gopher said. "He's_ looking _at me!"_

 _The stranger holds up a paw. At first, he does nothing. Then, in an instant, his claws come out. His eyes get big and angry-looking. He starts snarling at the kids._

 _"AAAAHHH!" they all scream, and I hear their footsteps running back into the building._

 _The stranger chuckles, his sharp claws receding and his teeth disappearing behind his lips._

 _"See?" he said. "They get scared just like everyone else. So what if they don't like you? They don't have to like you, only_ you _do. You tell yourself what to do."_

 _That sounds great! "Really?"_

 _He looks at me like he knows what I'm thinking. "Well, to an extent. You still have to obey authority figures and you parents, so no eating pounds of candy at a time, but so long as you respect and like yourself enough, you can do anything you set your mind to!"_

 _"Great!" I cry out. "Thanks, mister!"_

 _He ruffles my head affectionately, making me giggle. "No problem, kiddo. Just stay true to yourself, Nick. There's a bright future for you. I can see it. Clear as day."_

* * *

Judy sucked in air. "Oooooh, that's a really cheesy ending."

"Yeah, no kidding," Nick scoffed. "But truth is cornier than fiction."

Judy looked at him. "That's strange, Nick."

"Not really. I have a friend who lost his tail in a blender." He made a _tsk_ sound with his teeth. "Poor guy. I was the only one considerate enough not to call him 'Stumpy.'"

"That's sad," Judy said sympathetically; losing your tail didn't sound like the most enjoyable thing in the world. "He's alive though, right?"

"Yeah, he's fine." Nick frowned. "Went off and made a career playing _Duty Calls_ for a living. Which actually makes him sound stupider than he is. You'd be surprised how strategically involved that stuff is. The only part I didn't get was the dubstep. And the _Toritos_ and _Fountain Dew_."

"That sounds like you, Nick," Judy commented with a laugh. "Defy the stereotypes."

"Yep. That's me," her love replied.

They shared a few moments of laughter, a laughter that could only be truly understood by those that held a secret bond together. Judy stared up into the night sky as she chortled, soaking up the feelings and the emotions. So small, so insignificant, really. It was like society wanted her to lose focus on the breathtaking universe around her and instead conform to the social norms. Now that she thought of it, she made up her mind to be more like Nick: absolutely unpredictable. As she simmered her thoughts in the cauldron of her mind, her smile slipped slowly from her face, and though she tried to catch it and put it back in its rightful place a few times, it just wouldn't show itself. Her subconscious had brought new worries into her head.

"Nick."

"Hm?"

"When we-" Judy stopped abruptly, taking in air before she continued in an attempt to form her ideas into sentences. "Earlier this morning, when...you know…"

Her acute ears picked up Nick's voice breathing perhaps the quietest swear word ever spoken. For his sake, she ignored it and powered through, to make him think she hadn't heard him.

"During the fight…" What to say? What to say? Maybe...No. If she said that, she'd sound arrogant and insulting. What about…? No, not that either. Too timid. She scrambled for a question to ask, but her mouth spoke before her brain thought.

"I just want you to know that I didn't mean anything I said."

Silence from her partner. Judy felt a slight cold sweat forming on her brow. Could he still be mad at her? Was this all a game, to see if he could get her to admit that she was wrong so he could promptly berate her for it? But her worries were squashed by another, stronger emotion as she felt Nick's arm lay itself across her belly, its paw sliding ever so gently behind her back.

"I know you didn't, Judy." Judy started in surprise; Nick's voice was now right next to her ear, yet somehow she hadn't heard him shuffling around to get there. She turned to look at him and found herself staring, near cross-eyed, down at his nose, his smile and kind eyes out of focus in the background.

She guessed that startling her made the task of kissing her much easier for him.

Her cheeks got much warmer when his lips touched them, and her mind melted; all rational thought was gone. The only thing that mattered to her now was Nick. He was so forgiving, no matter what the offense was. It was like he didn't care what anybody else did. Judy felt like to him, everyone was good at heart, and they just made bad choices that could be atoned for. And that was what she thought she had fallen in love with. But in truth, she hadn't fallen in love with his personality. She had fallen in love with every single part of him. His attitude, his personality, his looks…

To her, he was perfect.

The next thing Judy knew, she had started kissing him full-on. She didn't know how, she didn't know why, but she didn't care. All she knew was that she loved him, and that was all that mattered. She felt him fight it a little bit out of pure surprise, but that lasted only a few seconds. Soon enough, he melted into it, his paws wrapping around her body. His left paw cradled the back of her head, keeping the kiss from breaking, and his right paw hovered around the small of her back, dangerously close to her cottontail. But she didn't mind. It was...magical, really. If she was completely honest, she didn't want it to end. She realized it was Nick she cared about, and that was it. Forget about money, fortune, fame, and all that. All she needed was Nick, and she would be happy.

The world turned over, and it was all she could do to not gasp in shock. Pushes and pulls of gravity shifted a million times a second, and suddenly, she was lying on the ground staring up at the night sky, Nick giving her a suave look through their kiss as if to say, "Are you surprised yet?"

Judy couldn't repress her soul's smile. It was such a Nick thing to do, to turn the tables when everything seemed simple. Her soul forced its smile on her, and she embraced it, allowing herself to get lost in the depths of his eyes.

 _Fsssh!_

Judy reacted to the rustling noise instinctively: with one paw, she threw Nick off of her so he was less likely to get shot. With her other paw, she drew her pistol from her holster too quickly for her mind to register. Within a fraction of a second, she had risen to her feet, one eye squinted down the barrel and staring straight at her father.

Wait. Her father?

Judy lowered her gun in surprise. "Dad?" she asked, trying to make out their assailant with what little moonlight they had. "What the Gazelle are you doing?"

"I knew it," her father spat, the end of his shotgun barrel shifting from Judy to Nick, who was clambering up in a daze. Once he realized what was going on, however, he threw his arms up in surrender and chuckled nervously.

"Mr. Hopps," he said in a voice somewhat shaking from fear. "Is there a problem?"

"You bet your _tail_ there is!" Judy's father said angrily, causing her to jump. "Come onto our property, saying all you want to do is stay a few days, and now I walk in on you taking advantage of my daughter! I should have expected nothing less from a fox."

"Dad, that's not fair!" Judy argued. "We both wanted to kiss, and we're both consenting adults, so you can't just come in here and interrupt us!"

"Don't talk back to me, young lady!" Her father's shotgun was trembling with rage. "You're living under my roof, no matter how briefly, and you will abide by my rules!" His left paw loaded a round into the chamber, primed and ready to rip through Nick's body.

Judy raised her pistol and aimed it at her father.

"Put the shotgun down, Dad," she said. "I _will_ arrest you! Put it down _now_!"

Her father didn't even look her in the eye; his focus was on Nick and Nick only. "Honey, do whatever you need to. But I'm going to do the same. You're my first priority, Jude."

"Look, Mr. Hopps."

Judy turned her head to look at Nick, her pistol still pointed at her father.

"I know you're a family man, sir, and I get that," Nick started. "You're doing what you have to do to keep your wife and your kids safe. And I respect that. I think we all want the same thing here: we want to keep Judy safe. And I know that my history with her has been...rocky, but I promise you, I meant no harm to her. It felt right, and the next thing you know, love's instinct took over and...well, you saw what happened. And I get what it looked like from your point of view. I just…" He trailed off for just enough time to shift his stare to Judy. "I love your daughter, sir, and the last thing I want is for something bad to happen to her. And I'll do whatever I have to to make sure she's safe. So…" He swallowed. "If you think I'm a threat to her, sir, go ahead and pull the trigger."

"Nick!" Judy couldn't believe what he was saying. It was frightening to think that her father might take away her true love, but it moved her to see him willing to sacrifice himself on her behalf so quickly. She spun her head around to glare at her dad, her gun still trained on him.

"Dad, I swear I'll arrest you! You might love me, but so does Nick, and I don't think Mom'd be very happy if you took away her only chance at grandkids!"

Her father had an intense look in his eye, one of indecision and self-debate. Judy saw his trigger finger trembling, and she braced herself for the sound of Nick's death.

But it never came.

Her father finally made up his mind: with an angry growl, he lowered his shotgun and started pacing madly. Judy breathed a sigh of relief. She holstered her pistol and ran into Nick's arms.

"I love you, Nick," she said, wrapping her arms around his chest and nuzzling under his chin.

"I love you too, Carrots," Nick replied in a soft, somewhat relieved voice. "Forever."

Judy turned her head to look at her father.

"Well, Dad, if we're all done here, I think we all have a big day tomorrow. Why don't we go to bed now?"

Her father raised his eyebrow suspectingly. "Fine. But you two aren't sleeping within a hundred feet of each other."

"I agree, sir," Nick replied. Then Judy heard him lower his voice to a whisper and say with unmoving lips:

"We'd end up too comfortable otherwise."

Judy suppressed a giggle as she melted into Nick's arms. But just as she had started to relax, a thought popped into her head about something she had heard earlier.

"Hey, Nick."

"Hm?"

"Why would a sound file throw an out-of-bounds exception?"

She felt Nick's chest vibrate rapidly as he started laughing. Judy giggled; even she thought it was a funny question. She was the last animal she'd think of that would ask that.

"Tension gettin' to ya, Carrots?" he asked, stroking the back of her head.

Now that she thought about it, the tension that was held captive was fading, its fetters slowly disintegrating as if Nick was taking on the entire burden.

"Let's get some rest, why not," she sighed. "We've got a long drive ahead of us tomorrow."

"Yeah, sure, Carrots," came the reply. "Let's. We've got a lead to follow up."

Judy didn't want the connection to end. She wanted to stay here with Nick until sunrise. But Nick let his arms rest, and she had no choice but to do the same. Without missing a beat, she felt her father grab her arm and start dragging her along with him to another part of the farm, probably the blueberry patches. She cast one last glance at Nick as she was forced to follow her father out.

The smile she saw made her certain it would stand the test of time.


	21. Judy Breaks the Floor

Fox. It smells like fox.

Judy didn't want to get up, but instinct bid her to open her eyes. Slowly they fluttered open, all the while resisting as much as they could. Was it really still dark out? How much had she slept, anyway? The world slowly came into focus, and she could make out a figure in the dark, a figure whose muzzle was practically inches from hers. That got her going. She opened them with resolve and started at the sight of Nick staring at her, with his eyes as wide as possible and a stupid, toothy grin that nearly touched his ears.

"Whoa!" she cried out, trying to move herself out from under him while she was still on her back.

"Knew that'd get you up," he said, the grin faltering just a little. "Come on. I figured out where we're going."

Judy rubbed sleep out of her eyes; she wasn't going to be able to get any more, not now that Nick had given her the "psycho movie killer" look, so she might as well be done with it and move on. "Where are we going?" she mumbled; apparently, her brain hadn't gotten the memo that it was time to wake up, and she heard herself say something along the lines of, "Heir e owen?"

Nick chuckled. "Not fully functional yet, are we?"

Judy stood up a bit unsteadily. "You try walkin' around after you wake up and see somebody staring at you like they might eat you."

"Fair enough," Nick agreed. "But still, get up. We're screwed if we don't get up and go."

"What's the rush, anyway?"

Nick seemed to relish the opportunity to keep talking. "I was thinking about it last night after we kissed. And I remembered a way I can find one of their hideouts. _Vamos al carro,_ Carrots." And he began to walk out of the fields.

Judy tried her best to be as alert as Nick, but if anything, she was doing an accurate impression of a drunk person: putting her feet out in front of her in abrupt steps, constantly trying to balance herself, and slurring her words a bit. She didn't imagine the undoubtedly bloodshot eyes that were dozing off in the middle of her skull could be helping either.

"Where's the car?" she mumbled, only slightly understandable.

"Follow me, Carrots," Nick said, a little too upbeat to sound like he woke up while the moon was setting. "We parked near your parents' house, remember?"

"You mean their almost house," she said. "They're in the middle of construction."

"Geez, Carrots, picky picky," Nick teased her playfully. "Just follow me and we'll get there. Never mind if the house if actually a house or not."

And so they continued on in silence for a while. It wasn't in Judy's nature to break silence, so she just went along with it, almost completely indifferent. But the awkwardness of the silence was bugging her, like a snake of tension was coiling around her body, suffocating her. Her breath became harder without her knowledge, just enough to be more audible than normal. Should she say something, or just let things fall where they may.

"You all right, Carrots?"

Well, so much for saying something.

Judy gave Nick her best look of innocence. "Yeah, why?"

He chuckled and tried to coax her with his eyes. "Come on," he teased. "What's with the heavy breathing?"

"Oh!" she said quickly, fumbling for an excuse. "I just...I didn't want to say anything, but I didn't want to have it quiet."

Nick nodded. "Okay then."

And that was all.

Judy again walked in silence with him. Now she was determined to not let the silence get to her. It was perfectly okay for two natural enemies to be walking in the dark without speaking a word to each other.

"Where are you two going?"

Judy jumped in surprise; she forgot her father had to get up this early to tend to the crops. She moved instinctively; her paw grasped for Nick's, but he was already offering it to her father as a friendly handshake. When her father made it clear he wasn't in a handshaking mood, Nick retracted his paw.

"Well, we figured out where we need to go to solve our case, so we're headed there to hopefully figure out what's going on and…" Nick trailed off.

"Police business," Judy covered for him. "We've got a perp to arrest."

Her father narrowed his eyes. "All right then," he said. "But if anything happens between you two, I'll-"

"Yeah, yeah, you'll kill Nick, and I'll detain you, and you'll get a life sentence for homicide," Judy said in a tone that made it seem like the conversation was boring her. "Can we go now?"

That shut her father up. She could see him setting his jaw as he moved aside. "Fine," was all he said.

Judy brushed past him, Nick dragging behind a bit. He's probably just feeling kind of awkward, she thought to herself. I mean, he did just have another unpleasant encounter with my dad, which is awkward in and of itself.

"Carrots? You all right?"

"Hm?" Judy looked over her shoulder for Nick, but he wasn't there. A tap on her other shoulder made her jump and look over at Nick; somehow, she had forgotten to keep walking and had stopped for no reason. She shook her head to clear her mind and said, "Yeah, I'm fine. Just...caught up in my thoughts. Nothing else." She smiled at him, and Nick returned the gesture.

"All right. No judgment here," he said, and kept walking. Judy, however, stayed rooted to the ground, but for another reason this time: attraction. God, Nick was perfect. She soaked in what should have been just an everyday sight - a fox walking down a path - the began to walk again.

Nick reached the car first; after Judy's stopping, thinking, and looking, it was a wonder she didn't take all day to get there. She assumed the passenger's side, and gave Nick his keys.

"Thank you kindly, Carrots," he said, ruffling her head affectionately like a father would his son.

"Stop it, Nick," she giggled as he started the car.

"Fine, Carrots," he replied playfully. "Spoil all the fun, will ya?"

They pulled out, ready to go on-road, but Nick was forced to slam on the brakes when Judy's mother ran out in front of them, waving one of her arms in a successful attempt to get their attention; the other had a bag in it.

Judy got out of the car and met her mother in front of the headlights.

"Jeez, Ma, do you _want_ to get run over?" she said, hugging her.

"Did you think I was going to let you go without saying goodbye?" her mom replied.

Judy was struck with guilt. "Oh, my God, Ma, I'm _so_ sorry…"

"Don't be!" Her mother gave her a smile. "It's totally understandable. You got distracted by the thrill of the job. Never mind your dear old mom and your brothers and sisters and father."

"Ma, you're not helping."

"Sorry." Her mother gave her a smile. "So much for being sarcastic."

"It's fine," Judy said. "Really. I'd have forgotten to say goodbye. Thanks."

"You'd also have forgotten this…" Her mother opened the bag and peered in it with a confused look. "Weird shirt...with...blood packs on it."

"Oh," Judy said in understanding, "that's Nick's." She had forgotten that he had put fake blood bags on his bulletproof vest. So paranoid, for no reason. So cautious, for no danger. She took the bag. "Thanks, Ma."

"Judy...do be careful."

Judy looked at her mother, trying to look as honest as possible.

"I will, Ma. I promise." Her mother broke the hug, and Judy stood there for a second, a second in which she burned this memory into her mind. Something about it was special, magical even. "Love you, Mom."

"I love you too, sweetheart," her mom replied. "See you soon."

Judy smiled as she closed her eyes and rubbed her nose against her mother's. Then she turned back, with a bit of hardship, and walked back to the car. Once she had seated herself inside, Nick started the car, ready to catch a criminal.

"So what's in the bag?" he asked.

"Your freaky little bulletproof vest thing," she replied.

"Ah, yes," Nick sighed fondly. "I remember when I made it. ZPD still has no idea who took it."

Judy have him a look that was meant to scold him, but she couldn't help but smile. "You're so bad, Nick."

Nick just chuckled.

As they drove slowly by the Hopps's new house, still under construction, Judy waved goodbye to her mother. She was going to miss it: the simplistic way of life that came with a farm, the hundreds of siblings that were practically underfoot with every step she took, the memories she had made playing in the cornfields, the blueberry patches and the orange groves. The farm was...enchanting, really. Every minute she spent there, Judy felt like she had gone back in time, landing in the 1800s, maybe the early 20th century. She would miss it dearly, and made a mental note to visit it every chance she could. But now, it was time to put a stop to the night howler once and for all. She took a few breaths and shook herself a bit, getting into the right frame of mind. Whoever it was, Bellwether or the chief or whoever, had attacked her family. They'd nearly seen Zootopia razed to the ground by their underground regime. It was her duty to stop them by any means necessary.

And if that meant killing the lawbreaker, then so be it.

"Let's go," she said. "There's no time to lose."

Nick picked up the speed. "You're a little eager, aren't you, Carrots?"

"Whoever this is deserves justice," she said. "Who better than the bunny cop that they almost killed?"

"Fair enough, Carrots, but if you need some reigning in, I reserve the right to keep you from hurting yourself."

"Touché," she replied.

"Yeah, thought so," Nick said. His paw moved to the dial. "Your turn?"

The last time they had the radio going was so long ago Judy couldn't remember who got the last word of music. "No idea," she said simply.

"Great, now it's going to bother me until I figure out whose station we listened to most recently."

"Well, why don't you tell me more about where we're going?" Judy suggested. "I mean, all _I_ know is that you know of a place that might lead us to the head honcho of night howler production."

"I guess we _could_ talk about that." Nick sighed. "The place we're headed to is a house just outside of Bunnyburrow. It's so secluded, it's not even on maps."

Judy didn't get it; what was the point, then? "Why are we going to this house of it's not even on a map?"

Nick chuckled. "Because it's the perfect place for a criminal organization to use as a covert safe house that's far away enough from the rest of civilization that it won't attract attention." His teachings on hyper observance enabled Judy to hear the almost absent nervousness in his voice. It sounded like he had had experience with this before. And he probably had; how else would he know exactly where they were going?

"You've encountered this place already, haven't you?"

Nick sucked in air through his teeth. "-Ish. I've seen it before, but not very clearly. I'm going off of memory...or, at least, I _will_ be once we get on the right path."

"What do you mean, 'the right path?'" Judy asked him.

"I might or might not have been taking a ride with a blindfold on while we were en route to the place." Nick said it very uncertainly, as if Judy might explode if he said the right word.

" _What?!_ " Judy couldn't believe what she was hearing, and couldn't stop herself from sounding the least bit hysterical. "You were _kidnapped_?"

"Calm down," Nick tried to soothe her. "It wasn't for too long. Plus, I was able to kick the tail light out with relative ease."

"' _Kick out the tail light?!'_ " Judy couldn't keep herself from repeating it; the sheer ridiculousness of the phrase made her feel dizzy. "You were in the _trunk_?"

"Yeah, so?" Nick didn't seem the least bit bothered about it. "It's safer in there than in the car with Big's minions."

Judy shook her head. It was just like Nick to try and shrug this kind of thing off his shoulders like it happened to everyone at one point or other. "You're so unbelievable, you know that?"

"I know," he said. "That's what makes me so hot."

"It also makes you look like an idiot," Judy replied.

"Okay, fine, so this place we're going to probably hasn't been used in about three years or so, so...just be on your guard if it's super dilapidated, and don't be surprised if it looks run down on the outside."

"Wow, Nick," Judy said sarcastically. "That was helpful."

"Well, I'm just trying to lighten the atmosphere."

Judy sighed. "This is gonna be a long drive."

* * *

"Okay, I can't take the silence anymore."

Half an hour later, and Judy was desperate for stimulation. There was no cell reception, she couldn't do any paperwork, and Nick had pretty much shut up for the entire time since they had been talking about the abandoned shack that they were allegedly going to. At this point, she would rather have a three-hour talk with a hyena coming off a coffee binge than drive in total silence for another second. "Turn the radio on or something."

"If you wanna talk, Carrots, then just say so," Nick said in a kind voice. "I've got no problem talking. Sometimes I talk to myself. Not that I'm insane, though, I just have to keep myself busy."

"I don't even know what we'd talk about."

"Let's try and figure out who's behind the return of night howler. Productive _and_ a solution to the silence problem."

Judy thought about it. But the more she did, the more she realized that she knew very little, and certainly didn't know enough to carry on a conversation about it. "Nah," she replied, trying to shake off her lack of knowledge by hiding it with indifference. "It's probably Bellwether again." Bellwether, always playing with their heads. Bellwether, always sowing the seeds of doubt in the minds of everyone she met. Bellwether, throwing a wrench at everything in sight.

"Really? You really think so?"

Judy turned to look at Nick; he hadn't said it in a mean-spirited way, rather in one of amusement, as if he knew the answer to something she didn't, or as if he wanted to turn it into a respectful debate.

"Yeah, I think so," she said. "She was behind the last one, and she might as well have told us herself that she's got a hoof in it."

"When?" Nick sounded a little confused.

"When she shot you full of chocolate-y death juice," Judy said in a way the she hoped conveyed her disbelief at the fact that he might have forgotten so soon. "'Another perp's hiding behind it all, they're the one you'll never see coming,' you don't remember that?"

"Well, yeah, of course I remember that, but how does that prove it's her?" Nick seemed to be getting less and less indifferent about the situation, and his voice began to sound bored.

"Well, does anyone ever suspect someone who says, 'the one who's behind it isn't the one you think it is' to be the one who's actually behind it?"

"Not necessarily," Nick replied.

"Well who do _you_ thi-?"

Nick slammed the brakes before Judy could finish her sentence. That wasn't bad in and of itself. What _was_ bad was the fact that she got such bad whiplash, her head smacked into the passenger airbag compartment. Her head reeling, Judy closed her eyes at the pain and clutched t her head with her paw.

"God, Nick, why'd you do that?!" she asked.

Nick gave her an apologetic look. "Sorry," he replied sincerely. "But we're here."

Judy looked around and saw naught but dust and dry vegetation. She could almost hear the crickets. "Nick, this looks like a great place to get heat stroke. Are you absolutely sure this is where we're supposed to be?"

Nick looked into the distance in front of them, and when she followed his gaze, Judy could make out a house approximately five hundred yards from them. "Yep, this is where we're supposed to be. That house right there."

Judy looked back an forth between Nick and the house. "You've gotta be kidding me, right? I'm not walking all the way over there when we can use the stupid car." As she said it, she could hear how whiny it sounded. Getting her skull whacked into hard plastic didn't seem to have helped improve her mood.

"Well, I _would_ go further, but these guys and I have a bit of a history. The 'ancient predator/prey' sort of history." He looked at her. "I _did_ point out that this is a mafia safehouse, right?"

Judy remembered all too well. "Yeah, you did. It came up while you were talking about getting kidnapped and thrown into the trunk of a car."

Nick chuckled. "Some of my funniest stories include the mafia. So now you understand why I'm hesitant to knock on the front door and say, 'Hey, I'm a cop now! Remember that time you almost killed me? Payback, fishes!'"

Judy narrowed one eyebrow and raised another, looking at him in a confused manner. "It's ' _fish_ ,' Nick. The plural of fish is 'fish.'"

"Yeah, I know, but I was substituting for a mean word."

Judy rolled her eyes. "Let's just get this out of the way." And with that, she opened the car door and got out. Nick took a few seconds (Judy didn't look, but he was probably straightening up and such), but eventually climbed out, taking the lead. Judy thought, just like the other sixty-eight percent of her adventures with Nick, that the entire thing, when viewed from afar, looked ridiculous. A rabbit and a fox parking really far away from a house, then getting out and walking on foot for no apparent reason. It felt like high school: "I dare you to get out of your car and run around in the yard of that spooky run-down house everyone says is cursed." Each step filled her with a little bit more of a varying emotion: apprehensiveness, excitement, wonder, cynicism. The odd thing was that Nick had shut up. Normally, he was going on and on about something - not that Judy didn't like his stories, but it tended to get a little old after listening to him for a while. But now he was completely quiet, and...fear? Maybe he had left out a part of the kidnapping recount that he didn't want Judy to know about? Perhaps he was dreading the same thing happening again? She looked him over. As far as she could tell, he showed no signs of fear. Still, total silence? Either he had suddenly abandoned all need to be impulsive, or something was up. Judy shook her head to snap herself out of it. Focus. Focus on the mission, she told herself. Okay, Nick might be a little less efficient. So why should I get all caught up in worrying about him? There's no sense in both of us being somewhat hindered when I can perform pretty much perfectly. She forced herself to look forward, at the house (if it could so be called) that seemed to get a bit bigger with each step she took. As they got closer, she could make out things that she wouldn't have noticed from the car, like the fact that the roof was made of wooden shingles and the lawn was littered with decapitated porcelain gopher gnomes.

"Isn't this how all the horror movies start?" Judy asked, hoping to get Nick talking again.

"Beats me," came the reply. So he _hadn't_ been struck dumb by memories of the past. "I shy away from horror movies as much as possible. The illusion's ruined for me."

Judy gave him yet another look. It seemed like she had been staring at him in a confused fashion a lot more than usual. "What do you mean, 'the illusion's ruined?'"

"Well, in college I took a cinematics class for credit to graduate. Which didn't help, because I left. Anyway, after seeing what goes on behind the scenes, I can't look at evisceration-hungry phantoms the same way anymore, because I know it's an actor and that there's a table with snacks on it just out of the shot. It's straight from 'I'm gonna kill you!' to God', I need a sandwich!'"

Judy couldn't help but chuckle; ill-timed as it was, Nick's joke was kind of funny. It was his shtick, really: get some humor out of the worst scenarios. Especially in a situation like this: going headfirst back into the wolves' lair. The wolves' lair that had dead fake gophers everywhere. And lots of missing shingles. Yeesh. As Judy got closer, she could make out more and more flaws in pretty much everything about the structure. Wooden support beams were lopsided and rotten, the windows were smashed open, and the fence was practically nonexistent. Though why there was a fence, she didn't know. It looked like it used to be one of those white picket fences that were all the rage six decades ago, with the pointy tops and the short little posts. The more Judy thought, the more she lost herself in her mind. The next thing she knew, she had been thinking about the fence so much that Nick had grabbed her shoulder to keep her from tripping over it and cutting herself on the evil little death gopher statues.

"You okay there, Carrots?" Nick asked quietly.

Judy felt herself blushing. "Yeah, I'm fine," she laughed it off. "Just thinking."

Nick raised an eyebrow. "Some serious thinking, then."

Judy managed a half smile. She was surprised to see Nick, upon his deeming her all right, take his hand off her and squat behind a patch of rather tall grass. She looked down at him and gestured at him with both paws. "What are you doing?" she cried out.

" _Sssssshhhh!"_ Nick's eyes went wide as her words hit his ears. Quick as a flash, his paw shot up and grabbed her by the arm, jerking her to the ground so the house was completely obscured by the tall grass.

"What the f-?" Judy's foul mouth was foiled by Nick's ever-ready paw: it slapped over her lips and acted as a rather effective censor. Nick's appendage, however, could do nothing to keep her from looking daggers at him when he took his paw back.

"Sorry," he whispered. "But I saw movement in there."

Judy rolled her eyes. "There's no one here, Nick," she hissed back. "There's not even a flipping _car_ here." She poked her head up over the grass and pried open the inside of the house with her eyes. Nothing. Wait! No, that was just a raggedy, tattered shade flapping in the slight breeze that just passed through. She looked back at him with a straight face. Perhaps Nick could tell that she was unamused, because he said, "Okay, maybe you can't see them, but I can smell 'em."

"Nick, this is ridiculous," Judy said. And with that, she sniffed as hard as she possibly could. Nothing. No polar bears, no Arctic shrews, no...Judy sniffed again. Something unnatural was coming from Nick's general area. She turned to look at him once more, to which he replied, "Deodorant. Papaya scented."

Now it was Judy's turn to raise an eyebrow. "There's nothing there, Nick," she said. "You're just experiencing what you experienced the last time you were here. Your brain's playing tricks on you. Now can we move along already?"

Nick stood up and sighed. "Fine, but if there _are_ people in there, I reserve the right to say, 'I told you so.'"

"Fine." Judy gestured for him to go through the gate. "Well? You know where we're going."

Nick swung the gate open, and it gave the typical creaking sound that all the old movie gates make. It didn't get very far, though, before the hinges snapped off, leaving Nick with his paw on a sad-looking piece of dead fence. He looked at it, shrugged, and tossed it aside. Judy suppressed a laugh. It was one of the most surreal things she'd ever seen, but here it was, happening right in front of her eyes.

The trio of steps that led up to the front porch did more than creak: the second Nick put his full weight on one of them, it bent considerably. Apparently on instinct (though he might have just been messing around), Nick dove for the porch, rolling over his right shoulder blade and standing back up. Judy rolled her eyes yet again and walked up like a normal animal would. She was definitely afraid that one of the stairs was going to snap and leave her stuck there, but she played it off with a cool composure as she approached the door. Nick shook his head.

"Women," he said.

"Men," Judy scoffed back with a smirk as she reached for the doorknob.

The inside of the house was barely an improvement from the outside. Dust littered the air, each speck flying out into the wild to land on more of their unmoving brothers and sisters. Peeling paper canvassed the walls, draping down onto the pictures and clocks. And something had charred one of the corners of the room pitch black. It looked like a…

"Nick?" Judy asked. "Is that a blast mark?"

She turned back to see what he did in response; Nick took the smallest of glances before replying. "Oh, yeah, when I was here last, I might have grabbed and used a grenade off of one of the henchmen that I knocked unconscious."

Judy stood there, almost immobile, trying to comprehend what he just said. "You set a grenade off in here? Great! Now we have to worry about it caving in on us at any moment."

Nick furrowed his brow. "True, but we probably would've had to do that anyway."

Judy shook her head and turned back to the room. It looked completely devoid of life, and she couldn't tell what all the fuss was about over this stupid shack. "Come on, Nick," she said, resuming her walk again. "Let's get this over with."

The second she set her foot down on the wooden plank in front of her, the ground gave way. Judy let out a cry of surprise as she tumbled. Her mind had no time to process anything. Arms over head, protect the head. Curl into a ball to protect the vital organs. Everything was spinning...

And then it stopped. Judy felt a jolt as something slammed into her back. Her head was reeling and a high-pitched noise was close to splitting her head open. Dazed, she carefully, shakily, put one paw on the ground, pushed herself up on one knee, and stood up slowly, taking extra measures to keep from toppling over. The noise faded, the dizziness disappeared, and her sight was restored. Judy's first instinct was to look up at the hole through which she just fell, and, when she did, saw Nick's fuzzy head poking out from above ground with a humored smile on its face.

"You just keep making a habit of this, don't you, Carrots?" he teased.

Judy put her hands on her hips. "Either help me up or come down here."

Nick shrugged. "Fine," he replied, edging closer to the pit. "Save some room for me down there, will ya?"

"Oh, ha ha -" Judy stopped mid-laugh. Something had caught her eye. It looked like a tiny little green blip had just appeared somewhere to her left and vanished within the smallest of seconds. She peered into the darkness, waiting for it, ever ready to- There it was again! Carefully, Judy stepped over the debris that had fallen down with her and drew her pistol, ready to attack any threat that might have presented itself.

A rustling noise came from behind her; Judy whipped around and trained her gun on whatever had made the noise. The disturbance was none other than Nick, who had just jumped down and landed, apparently very gracefully, on the ground. He threw his hands up as he stood up, realizing what was going on.

"Jeez, Carrots, point that thing at whatever's got you so riled up," he protested.

Judy lowered her gun for just a second before turning around and pinpointing the blip again. "Nick, use the flashlight on your phone," she said.

She heard Nick fumbling around in his pockets, and, moments later, the source of the light was revealed. Computer towers stacked on top of each other, all connected to different monitors that took up a large portion of the wall. A little box was wired into all of it, emitting the green light that Judy had seen. The computer towers were idle and the screens were off, but why would someone need so many computers anyway? Why wasn't one good enough? She turned to Nick to ask if he knew what it was all about, but the petrified look on his face gave it all away. He knew what this was.

"Nick, what is it?" she asked him.

Nick blinked a few times, swallowed, and said, "It's a Beowulf cluster."

He might as well have been speaking Swahili. "Sorry. _What_?"

Nick swallowed again and started moving around. "It's a Beowulf cluster, a DIY supercomputer for hackers. Think about it this way. If you get one person to work on as assembly line, it'll take them forever to meet the demands of their employer. But if you have twelve people working on an assembly line, it's vastly easier. Likewise, twelve computers breach a security firewall much faster than only one. And I'd bet all my cash on this being a Beowulf cluster."

Judy understood now. That kind of power could be catastrophic if put into the wrong hands. "So what are they using a Beowulf cluster for?"

Nick inhaled through his teeth. "Dunno. I have a couple theories, though," he said, walking around to get a better look at the system. "They're either trying to compromise a security system or erase official records." He got to the desk and stopped, eyes open wide.

"What? What is it?" Judy asked.

Nick reached for something on the desk; when he brought his paw back up, he was holding a glass of what looked like alcohol and ice.

"Or maybe there's someone here somewhere," he said. "Whatever we're going to do, we have to do fast."

Judy ran over to him so she could look at what was on the desk. She saw post-it notes everywhere and maps with pins in them and, perhaps the most daunting, a loaded handgun that had what looked suspiciously like blood on it. She grabbed her phone and began taking pictures.

"Good idea," she heard Nick talking behind her. "Intel."

She snapped as many photos as she possibly could. She felt it would take forever, but she was finally satisfied with her portfolio and stepped back. She had barely lowered the camera, however, before Nick shoved his way into the chair. He pressed a button whose function was beyond Judy's knowledge and the great machine rose from its slumber.

"Nick, what are you doing?" she hissed.

"Backtracking," he said, typing furiously with great precision. "If I can figure out what they've done, I can figure out what they plan to do."

"Hey!"

Judy looked up in horror as she heard the yell. A tuxedoed wolf was standing near an open door in shock, shifting his gaze between Judy and the hole in the floor.

"What the he-?"

He was cut off as the butt of a flying handgun hit him square on the nose. The next thing Judy knew, she was watching Nick, who had barreled towards the unknowing enemy, taze the poor canine into unconsciousness. He looked back at her.

"We've got to go," he explained, looking around. "There's got to be a way out of here."

"Why?" Judy said. "What happened to backtracking?"

"Listen, I'm all for collecting data, but he had an alarm on. One of those door alarm bajingus thingies on a timer. Anyway, it's sending out a signal to an underground base about 500 yards away. So we have to go. Now."

Judy looked around. "Well, how are we going to get out of here?"

Nick narrowed his eyes. "I've got an idea." He ran towards the wall and threw himself at it, but just as he was about to slam into it, he planted his foot on it, and pushed off of it with all his might. His paws just barely grabbed the edge of the floor, and he heaved himself up. His bushy tail disappeared for two seconds, but he came back with a chair. He lowered it as far as he could. "Here, Judy, grab onto one of the legs!"

Judy put her hands on her hips. Pfft. Chairs. She bent down, twitching her bunny tail, and just when she felt the time was right, pushed down as hard as she could, her natural jumping ability propelling her up onto the floor with one swift movement. She walked away as she heard Nick drop the chair down into the basement.

"Yyyyeah," he said. "Forgot about that."

Judy threw open the front door, which snapped off at the hinges after encountering the excessive force. Her handgun was drawn, her eyes were scanning the desert, and her feet were racing to the car as fast as they could. Nothing presented itself so far, but if there was one thing she had learned on the force, it was that you could never let your guard down. It only took one second for a cop or a suspect to make a decision that affected them for the rest of their lives.

There! Two SUVs were pulling out of the ground at two o'clock! Judy cast a glance over at Nick, who wasn't as far behind as she thought he was. She turned and fired at their attackers; even if the bullets didn't hit, they would repel the crawling monsters for a few moments. Judy reached for the door handle and hastily lowered herself into the passenger's seat, all the while firing off random shots in the general area of the hostiles. She felt the car start up, and was thrown into the back of her seat as Nick burned rubber out into the desert.

Judy heard her gun clicking; without thinking, she released the magazine, grabbed a new one, and reloaded, keeping a constant stream of bullets flying at whatever was behind them. The mafia's cars had picked up speed and were starting to close the gap between themselves and Nick's car.

"Anything bigger I can use?" she yelled over the noise of the roaring engine.

"No!" Nick yelled back. "You'll have to make do with the pop gun!"

Judy leaned out of the window and resumed firing, this time aiming for drivers and passengers, but shooting accurately in a moving vehicle proved to be too big a challenge. Her bullets either ricocheted off the front of the cars or missed them entirely. But that wasn't her biggest problem; one of the passengers in the right car had mimicked her, and was firing out of the car window. Judy ducked back into her seat to avoid the automatic weapon's hail of lead.

"Well, that's not gonna work," she said loudly. "Any other plans?"

"No, Carrots, we're pretty much done for in the plans department," Nick replied over the engine. "There's nothing else I can possibly think of, and unless you have any- Oh boy!" he yelled. "That's a big friggin' gun!"

Judy looked into the rearview and instantly saw what he was talking about. Another henchman had stuck his head out of the top of the car and shouldered a rocket launcher that was aimed right at them. Judy looked back to see it with her own eyes and was met with the horrifying sight of the missile streaking through the air right towards them.

" _Impact!"_ she yelled, shielding her head as best she could.

As the missile hit, Judy felt the back of the car try its best to buck her through the windshield. Gravity shifted and the earth tilted, and it was all she could do to not get sick. The world turned vigorously as the ground rushed up to crack her skull open on the roof. She closed her eyes; it was too much, she couldn't handle thinking about it. Thinking about the fact that thousands of pounds of metal had just been sent skyward with her in it, and that the only thing keeping her from being pitched through laminated glass was a thin belt across her chest, and that so many animals die in accidents like this, and-

The roof of the car slammed onto the ground and Judy was left hanging there, two feet above the ground. The g-forces had been too much; she could feel her body shutting down, and her vision was blackening. She looked over to see how Nick was doing, but he was in bad shape. She was horrified to see his eyes closed, blood running from his nose and his arms limp, hanging down.

"Nick…" she whispered, for it was the loudest she could manage.

Thick, burly, white-furred arms grabbed his body and dragged him out from under the overturned car, and Judy's instinct was to panic. But she couldn't. She was too weak. He had to rest. No. No, she had to stay awake. She couldn't black out now. If she did, what would happen to her? Where would they take her? She wouldn't know. No. Sleep. She needed to just close her eyes. Just close her eyes, and it would be all better. Judy shut her eyes slowly. That was all she really needed. A bit of a breather…

The last thing she remembered before blacking out was being dragged by thick, burly, white-furred arms.


	22. Nick's Rib Cage Takes a Beating

Voices. Deep voices. Big footsteps. Judy's subconscious bid her wake, but she desperately wanted to stay there. Just stay there completely still. Maybe, if she had even the slightest bit of good luck, whoever was with her would lose interest and leave her alone. If fate was on her side, her attacker might choose to let her off without so much as a scratch. The battle between subconscious and instinct raged on, and it was all she could do to try and remain completely still. Just get up. Just wake up and figure out what's going on. No. No. It's too risky. If something really bad is out there, then her movement would set it off. But who said she needed to move in order to see what was happening? Couldn't she just get slowly open her eyes to see what was going on? Yes, yes, that's it. She just had to ease her eyes open. There was nothing to it. Slowly, she raised her eyelids to assess the situation. Quietly, steady now...

The only thing she could see was natural fibers. Some kind of bag or sack had been put over her head, and her paws were tied behind her back. She could barely even make out the outlines of the animals moving around. One of them was coming right at her. Her first instinct was to run, but she couldn't; some part of her mind was telling her to let them take her wherever they were going to take her. The arms that seized her were rough, pulling her along with it. There was darkness ahead, and her instinct to run lashed out at her, yelling at her to obey. She succumbed and she moved her feet like, as was most likely the case, her life depended on it. The arm, however, had other ideas; it tightened around the collar of her shirt and lifted her into the air, leaving her dangling there like a marionette.

In that moment, all of Judy's spirit left her. This was it, she was going to die, wherever the arm would take her, it didn't matter, she was dead anyway, her life ended here. She let herself go slack, biting her lip to keep the tears from coming. The arm had decided that she had had enough, and let her back down onto the ground, not waiting for even the slightest of moments to resume pulling her towards her doom.

Left turn, right turn, left, left, right, left, right, right. Judy had lost count of the corners they'd turned. Her mind raced, her heart pounded. There was light. She could see a speck of light in the distance. The arm sped up, and she had no choice but to match its pace. A rock caught her foot and she slammed to the ground with an "Oof!" of pain. The arm picked her up and threw her over a broad, meaty, rough shoulder. Each step the assailant took bounced Judy into the air. Every bounce slammed her in the stomach and made it hard for her to breathe. Now she saw the path through which they just traveled. There was no light to be seen. Bounce...bounce...bounce…

The shoulder stopped hurting her, the arm let her down. She was promptly turned around. The light was there, and Judy gave a cry of pain as a foot dug into her hind leg, forcing her to drop to her knees.

The bag was ripped from her head, and she gasped in fresh air as the light blinded her. She couldn't see anything. The light was relentless, obscuring her comprehension of what was really going on. Soon, her eyes adjusted, and she could make out a few shapes. Three standing, one kneeling. A white floodlight shone on all of them. The light was calming down even more. They were in an abandoned building, overlooking the city. Five guards - all of different species - for two prisoners. Judy looked at her the other kneeling figure. It had a bag over its head. There were no defining features, but the clothes…

Nick?

One of the guards stepped behind the prisoner and ripped the bag off. Judy gasped in fear as Nick's head was revealed, coughing and squinting. She thought that she was scared of her own death, but losing Nick? The one animal she couldn't live without was in mortal danger.

"So, all of the cat-and-mouse comes down to this, huh?"

Judy's ears perked up and anger coursed through her, fear replaced with hatred.

Bellwether.

The insane sheep walked into view, a twisted smile on her face and malicious, beady eyes that could read souls. In her hoof was a gun. Not a night howler gun, a real gun. With real bullets.

"So it _was_ you," Judy spat.

Bellwether gave a girlish chuckle. "Judy, you should have known it all along. I love me some good old-fashioned deceit and dishonesty."

"That makes one of us," Nick replied.

Bellwether sauntered over to him. "Well, aren't you the cynical, sarcastic one today?"

Nick gave a cocky smile. "I do try."

Bellwether cracked the butt of her handgun against the back of Nick's skull as he cried in pain and fell to the floor. His paws were tied and he couldn't get himself back up. Bellwether motioned to another guard, who moved over to the fox and got him back up to his knees. Nick's fur was already sticky with blood, and he was breathing through his teeth in what sounded like a very painful manner. It wasn't like Bellwether to do something like this. What changed? Had she injected herself with night howler one too many times?

"You just don't know when to shut up, do you, Nick?" Bellwether taunted as she half-skipped back to where she had been standing. "Such a shame. Two good little lovers, sticking their snouts in something that ought not to be meddled with. Awww," she frowned, looking at her weapon. "And I got fox blood all over my gun." She started trying to wipe it off on the wall.

"You're different, Bellwether," Judy's mouth ran. She didn't know if she meant it or if she was just saying it out of fear, but when she spoke, she could hear the trembling in her voice. Whether she wanted to or not, her mind bid her continue. "This isn't like you."

"Ha!" Bellwether spat it like it was a poison. "You don't know me. At the risk of sounding like a cliche, _Judy_ , you know nothing about me. Do you know how long I've been waiting for this? Everything is coming together! The enhanced night howler is in full production now. Soon, Zootopia crumbles, and I'm in a far-away country with my millions."

"Answer me this."

Bellwether stopped mid-breath and glared at Nick. "You're interrupting my monologue. This better be important."

Nick cracked another smile. "The enhanced night howler...how'd you make it?"

Bellwether returned his grin. "Let's just say I had to make a deal with the devil."

Nick turned his head and raised an eyebrow, looking rather intrigued. "You don't say. Nailed by Doug, I suppose?"

"Please. Doug, an ordeal? That happens every Wednesday night, my fascinated fox friend," Bellwether said, leaning close to his muzzle. Then she stopped, eyes wide as if a thought had occurred to her. "Ooh. Alliteration. Me likey." She turned her back to Nick and began to walk around again.

"I said that we should probably leave it at 'deal with the devil.' Well, the thing you realize is that…" Bellwether chuckled. "I didn't mean metaphorically. Basically, I needed something with real kick. Something that would bring the city to its knees not too quick, not too slow. The answer? Demon blood."

Judy felt her eyes widen. "That's not dark at all," she said in a small voice.

Bellwether swept over to her. "Oh, you haven't the slightest idea how dark I can be. But that's another story or sixty-six.

"As I was saying, I put out feelers. And guess what came crawling back? One of my employees had found the actual devil. The head honcho. Pointy horns, forked trident, and so forth. Well, he was in disguise, but it was the same effect. So we proceeded to negotiate."

"You sold your soul to the devil?"

Bellwether sighed. "Nicholas Wilde, your mouth will be the death of you. No, I did _not_ sell my soul to the devil. The devil thought my employee was the one who actually needed it. It was simple enough: employee gives himself up, and the devil supplies me with demon blood. Easy peasy."

Judy was shocked. "You fed an innocent animal to hell?"

Bellwether looked at her in a really odd fashion. "Innocent? Officer Hopps, he _works_ for me. Every employee of mine is automatically guilty. And I didn't _feed_ him to hell. He _wanted_ to. That's how he found _el jefe_. He's kind of a die-hard fanatic. Inverted crosses, black clothes, the whole bit. He practically begged to go." She paused and frowned. " _Wow_ , I know weird people."

"But how are you going to introduce night howler to the masses?" Nick asked. "We talking about a jet-strafing of the city?"

Bellwether cocked her head. "We should've done that. That would have been cool. But no. A much simpler method has presented itself."

"Yeah? What is it?"

Bellwether's grin spread even wider. "Why, energy drinks, my inquisitive vulpine."

Nick cocked his head. "Energy drinks? Sorry to burst your bubble, Dawny, but the taurine in energy drinks negates the effects of night howler."

"That's true," Bellwether mused. "Yes, taurine's organic and can be found in body tissue, so there's incorporation of taurine from the drink into the blood. But...I have solution. You see, once Doug figured out how to incorporate the demon blood into our formula, our tests have shown that the night howler completely overpowers the taurine. It's like a software update, or like creating a droid prototype to see which model will best kill off a bunch of superheroes. Now, I've paid off minimum-wage workers to mix some of our formula into the next few batches of mass-distribution energy drinks. If all goes according to plan, which is about ninety percent likely, we'll see a civilization of crazed murdering predator-and-prey beasts. If it doesn't work, we'll inebriate practically the entire population, and everyone will be higher than the voice of a guy who's been kneed in the undercarriage."

Judy's mind was racing. Something Bellwether had said was familiar, but she couldn't put her finger on it. The insane sheep continued.

"But is that really a better alternative? Either way, the masses lose their senses and chaos runs rampant in the streets. Honestly, any kind of anarchy is just what I want. It's the...spice that this city needs. Right now, everything's kinda bland. So why not throw in a little extra something for a few days? After all, a few days is just the right amount of time for this place to break."

"I don't get it," Nick said. "Why are you doing this? It's the exact opposite of a good idea! What's your motive?"

Bellwether gave a bitter chuckle. "My motive? My _motive_? I've spent my entire life unappreciated and taken for granted. I work for an arrogant bighead who thinks he's better than me because we're in different places on the food chain. I get stuck with all of the anger that he's feeling, I get all of the extra paperwork he doesn't feel like doing, and I've finally snapped. We have to show them that equality isn't what we're getting!"

Judy couldn't let it go; there was something very, very wrong with Bellwether. Her behavior was borderline manic, and when she started talking about equality, she cast a look at Nick. And then it hit her:

" _Yes, taurine's organic and can be found in body tissue, so there's incorporation of taurine from the drink into the blood."_

 _"_ _"Taurine, also known as 2-aminoethanesulfonic acid, is an organic compound and can be found in body tissues. It is also used in energy drinks such as Animal, Pit Bull, and Foxstar."_

Judy couldn't help it; she started chuckling the way a captive would if they were about to spin a story that might just save their life. Bellwether turned and looked at her. "Is something funny, Judy?"

In reality, Judy was done laughing, but she kept it up for dramatic effect.

"If you've got a joke you'd like to share, Judy, by all means go ahead. But I warn you, I'll stop you if I've heard it before."

Judy looked into Bellwether's eyes. "You know, Bellwether, as far as twisted plans go, it's not that bad. You hire some psychos to help you plot the destruction of this city, watch Zootopia fall, and then sail into some kind of retirement. Probably on an island somewhere, with a lot of tropical drinks and so on and so forth. But there's just one problem." At this point, Judy caught Nick's eye and winked at him. Nick raised his eyebrows and shrugged his shoulders, as if he was saying, "What are you doing that for?"

"And which problem is that?" Bellwether asked daintily.

"Well, you've let Nick live for a little too long," she said, ignoring Nick's "Hey!" of protest. "You had him at your mercy when you pumped him full of theobromine. You could've just let him die. But then, you thought he was going to die anyway. At the very least, he'd be bedridden for a while, long enough to try and throw me off the trail.

"One thing you don't know about Nick. He doesn't like being bedridden."

"True," Nick chimed in.

"So, naturally, it came as a surprise to you when Nick jumped back up at the first possible moment and leaped back into the fray of police work. I don't know if this is just because he loves me or if he does this to everyone, but Nick loves teaching me how to notice things that most animals wouldn't notice. Things like differences in an animal's behavior, inconsistencies that don't add up, and coincidences too strong to ignore."

Bellwether was squinting her eyes and looking at Judy like she was insane. "I still don't understand how any of this is relevant to the conversation, Judy."

"Well, think about it," Judy said. "Your knowledge of taurine, your awkward working environment, your tendency to throw out red-herring observations. Your behavior and your psychology fit the description of another animal I know. So...the one problem that you've got?" Judy looked over at Nick. He was smiling with pride, blinking blood out of his eye.

"I've taught you well, Carrots," he said.

"What is he talking about?!" Bellwether said, a little frantically. "What are you talking about?!"

"You just don't know when to _cut ties_."

Judy spoke the words with unerring confidence. The minute they rolled off her tongue, Bellwether began to jerk about, shivering like a glitched-out computer. She flickered, flickered, and was gone.

There, standing before them in a huge, crudely-built FURRIE, with Bellwether-esque glasses on, was none other than Benjamin Clawhauser.

Judy couldn't suppress the victorious smile creeping onto her face. "Heya, Benji."

Clawhauser looked down, and when he realized what had happened, he looked at Judy in a mock-pouty face. "Judy! You just spoiled the big reveal!"

"Actually, this way was pretty majestic too," Nick offered.

Clawhauser mulled it over for a second. "Huh. I guess you're right. Props, Judy. You figured it out."

A silence passed.

"Wait, wait, wait," Nick spoke up after a few seconds of total quiet. "When you were talking about Wednesday nights with Doug...Please tell me you were lying."

Clawhauser looked at him in a disappointed fashion. "Really? _Really?_ You act all the time, Nick. You of all people should know that I was getting into character."

"Why would you overthrow the city?" Judy asked. She couldn't fathom it; Clawhauser, a psychotic criminal. "You love working at the ZPD!"

Clawhauser rolled his eyes. "Because there's always donuts at the ZPD! Cops? Donuts? Plus-sized cheetah? Hel-l _oooo_! Plus…" He chuckled. "It was all part of my cover. Come on, tell me. You totally didn't see this coming, did you?"

"Not until you blew it by trying to mimic Bellwether," Judy admitted. "Another thing. I thought the FURRIEs didn't do smaller animals."

"Well, mine's nice and upgraded," Clawhauser motioned to his mech. "It does...science-y things...I don't know. I told the guy who made it for me that I only wanted to know that it would function properly. I'll let my enemies worry about how it works. So yeah."

"So _you_ poisoned me," Nick said, a little reproachfully.

"No, that was actually Bellwether," Ben replied loftily. "They caught her and managed to put her back in her jail cell. Jeez, she's feisty. Knocked a guy out with a right hook. Nasty. Anyway, she poisoned you. I haven't done anything to hurt you."

"Oh, so you didn't send a squad of mafia goons after my family?!" Judy began to stand up in rage, but a forceful paw caught the top of her head shoved her back down.

Clawhauser mused. "I guess I _did_ do that."

"And you tortured Wolford and McHorn?" Nick was getting emotional, too; his voice trembled with rage. "You're the reason I stayed so angry at my father after all these years?" Without warning, he lunged for Clawhauser, paws bound and teeth bared. "You son of a-"

Another henchman kneed him in the stomach, and he fell down, coughing and wheezing.

"Oooh," Clawhauser winced. "Jimmy, that was a little harsh. I've seen football tackles softer than that. You'll have to forgive him, Nick. He gets carried away when I need someone's leash tightened."

Nick could only glare, still breathing heavily in an attempt to get his wind back.

"I suppose that's the case," Clawhauser continued. "I captured your father - I didn't know it was him at the time, but it would hardly have made a difference - and Wolford and McHorn. They were all viable candidates, offered a wide spectrum of resistance potential - an athletic police officer, a tough-skinned rhinoceros, and your average, run-of-the-mill fox. We tested on them for quite a while, and then...well…"

"You kept 'em anyway, you sick-"

Jimmy's fist cut Nick off.

"Yes, yes, we did keep them," Clawhauser admitted. "What else were we going to do? They were in very bad physical shape, but they weren't insane. If we let them go, people would listen to them. Then our entire operation would be compromised, and that wouldn't have been any fun. You wouldn't have won six grand at the blackjack tables, Bogo wouldn't have been locked up, Nick wouldn't have been poisoned. See how much more boring your lives would have been? Granted, you'd have been safer, but where's the fun in safety? There's a reason roller coasters are so popular. Animals love danger."

"Hold on, now." Judy had a question that couldn't be suppressed. "That's my FURRIE. How'd you fit yourself into that?"

"What, this old thing?" Clawhauser again motioned to his metal skeleton. "It was nothing, really. See, I knew that these things helped you mimic the personas you take on. Like when you were that Russian polar bear-" Judy opened her mouth to speak, but Clawhauser cut her off. "-I know, how could I have known about that little mission? Well trust me, Judy, I have feelers everywhere. Anyway, I'm a horrible actor, so I needed some help. I got some engineers to make the frame bigger so I could fit into it. Glad to say that I succeeded!"

"When you say you got engineers-" Nick wanted to ask the question, but Clawhauser wanted no nonsense.

"Nick, if you try and ask a question again, Jimmy's gonna punch your rib cage all the way up into your throat." The criminal cheetah let a second pass to make the meaning stick, then continued. "The engineers might not have been paid, but so what? They did a really good job. See, in my experience, you work harder when you're working for your life, not for money. I held them hostage and set them to work around the clock. I think you might know one of them. Goes by the name of Jay."

The name rang like a tolling bell in Judy's head. Jay? From the FDA? She hadn't thought about him in a long time. Suddenly, she remembered: Brodi Noho. Noho had been an agent, all right, but he wasn't from the FBI or whatever he said he had been with. He had been working for Clawhauser! Judy felt all of the pent-up anger inside her begin to leak onto her muzzle, her eyes narrowing and her teeth grinding together in what she secretly hoped looked like a tough expression. No one paid her any attention, though; they were all mesmerized by Clawhauser's story.

"Jay and a few of his government friends got kidnapped and modified the FURRIE Noho procured from you. Soon enough, I was able to walk around in it comfortably and start causing some mayhem. Only been a few days, though. You haven't given me as much time as I want."

Judy could barely process all of the information that was bombarding her brain. Bellwether was Clawhauser, and Clawhauser was evil, and Zootopia was going to be razed to the ground. She couldn't wrap her head around it all. "So now what happens?" she asked, really only caring about the answer to her question. "We already know everything. You just gonna shoot the both us?"

Clawhauser looked extremely mortified as he gasped in horror. "Why, Judy, I wouldn't dream of such a thing! No, no, no!" He disengaged the FURRIE and began pacing around on his own. "I thought of it originally, but that was too melodramatic. Just bang, bang, dead fox, dead rabbit, yada yada yada, city's destroyed, and so on and so forth. I mean, I only get to kill the both of you once, right? So I thought about shooting one of you with night howler and leaving the two of you to kill each other. But that was too cliche. It's already been done, after all. Then I thought about just leaving you alive. But at the same time, I can't just let you roam free with your newfound knowledge. I have to be able to resume my work at the ZPD as if I haven't broken the bodies of two of the city's best cops. So..."

"So now what happens?" Nick asked, taking a leaf out of Judy's book. "Are you going to leave us both here unsupervised? Maybe give us some kind of chance at getting out of here?"

"Oh, Nick," Clawhauser chuckled. "Always the strategically challenged one, aren't you? Well, I have a solution for that." He cocked his gun and pointed it at Judy's head.

"NO!" Nick's cry destroyed Judy's eardrums, and she winced in pain and fear, waiting for the sound of death. But it never came. She opened her eyes slightly, and she saw Clawhauser tilting his head at Nick in an interested fashion.

"Fascinating," he said. "So the hard-as-nails, tough-guy fox has a weakness, does he?" The cheetah sauntered over to Nick, holding his gun loosely. "Well, there will be no space for weakness in my new dystopian civilization." And he brought the gun up beneath Nick's chin.

Judy's mind raced, but her heart took over. The sight of Nick closing his eyes, his chest heaving in uncertainty, his lips quivering, his tail twitching in anticipation of a bullet - it was too much to bear. She couldn't stand idly by and let Clawhauser end the only animal she ever loved.

"Wait," she said coolly. The calmness of her voice scared her. How could she be so calm? There they were, Nick's life in the paws of a psychosocial maniac, and Judy was talking like it was just another Saturday night. Clawhauser seemed even more surprised, however; his smile couldn't be suppressed.

"Thank you for proving my point, you two," he said.

"What are you talking about?" Nick asked him in a wavering voice, taking care not to move so as to avoid triggering the gun.

"The both of you can't stand to see the sight of the other one die," Clawhauser said. "So this is how it's going to go." And he whipped the gun away from Nick's throat.

"I want to play a game," said Clawhauser simply. "One of you gets shot right here, right now. The problem is, I don't want to have to choose, because frankly, you two make such a great couple. Not only that, but choosing would be so...unfair. You two don't get to present your sides of the argument. So!" He snapped his fingers. "Here's what I'm going to do.

"I'll shut up for a minute and let the both of you argue amongst yourselves about who's going to take the bullet. When you've decided on a candidate, let me know and I'll take care of the shooting part." Clawhauser stopped talking and stood there. After a few seconds, he looked back and forth between the both of them and said, "Go on. Talk."

Judy's eyes locked onto Nick, and his eyes met them. In unison, they said, "Me."

Judy couldn't let Nick take the floor; if he started talking, he'd shut her down before she could say a word. In a flurry of thought, she started rambling. "No, Nick, I won't let you throw away your life for me."

"The feeling's mutual, Carrots," Nick bit back. "There's no way I'm going to watch you die today."

"I've had a good life." The words slammed into Judy's logical processes and jarred her speech. What was she saying? She wasn't even thirty years old, and here she was saying that her life had been a nice, long one? But there was no taking it back. This was to defend Nick, and she would take anything she could that had the slightest chance of leaving his skull bullet-free. So she continued, talking by the seat of her jeans as she broke eye contact with Nick and looked at the ground. "I've always been the good girl. I never cheated, stole, did drugs, none of that. My record is clean. No incriminating evidence can be used against me. But you, Nick…" She choked back a sob and blinked tears out of her eyes. "You've changed….You're on...the righteous path…" The sobs were breaking her speech. "And you deserve...to finish off this...second chance. You need life more than I do."

Total and utter silence. Judy's sniffles were the only sounds that echoed throughout the barren, empty room. When she had gathered enough strength, she dared look at Nick, whose mouth was moving silently, trying to form words and tears rolled down his muzzle.

"You're right, Carrots," he sobbed, staring straight at her. "I'm a criminal...and I'm trying so hard...to keep myself...out of trouble. But that's no reason...that a spotless… innocent rabbit...should die in my stead. I already got a...second chance. I don't deserve a third. Who knows...how far I...might...fall." He jerked his head to look at the floor in self-pity, fighting back a sob. Judy couldn't bear it, to see him so broken. It tore at her heart, and she could speak nothing. Her mouth only moved, no sounds escaping from her throat. Nick's head rose to look at Clawhauser, and as he spoke, his voice broke, tears rolling through his fur.

"Please," he begged. "She's done nothing wrong. If you have to kill someone, kill me. I could never live without her anyway."

Judy sobbed with abandon; she couldn't look away from Nick, but she couldn't stomach the sight of him so shattered. Clawhauser looked solemnly.

"Well, this was a bad idea," he said. "You two have actually made me sympathetic. Nick, you'll be on the receiving end of this, and it makes me sad to see you go. You had a bright future once upon a time," he continued as he brought the pistol up, slowly and slowly lining the sights up in the area between the fox's eyes; Nick closed them and sobbed reactively. "But unfortunately, it all ends here."

"Wait." Nick opened his eyes and met Clawhauser's stare. "Last request." He stopped, took a shaky breath, gulped, and continued. "Not the head. Please. I don't want a closed casket. I don't deserve it."

Clawhauser stopped, considered it, and nodded. "You're right, I suppose. You have a rather lovely face, don't you? It'd be a shame to break it."

And he moved the gun down towards Nick's chest, aimed directly at his heart.

"Goodbye, Nick."

Everything happened in slow motion: Judy heard the crack of the gun, she saw the bullet rip through Nick's flesh and embed itself in his breast, she screamed in emotional agony as Nick's eyes widened in surprise, as he mouth opened in pain, as his body slackened, as his once lively green eyes became nothing but blank ovals, as his corpse fell backward and twisted to that his legs were bent and thrown askew. And as his body hit the floor, reality crushed Judy's heart like a freight train: it had been done. Nick was dead. She saw no rising nor falling in his chest, she heard no wheezing breaths, she could see no movement in his eyes. All she could do was stare at the empty shell that used to be the only animal she loved and cry silently, knowing that nothing she could have done would have prevented it.

Clawhauser lowered his weapon and sighed. "Regrettable, but necessary. I bid you farewell, Judy," he said as he turned to leave through the open door. As his henchmen followed him, one of them cut Judy's bonds. Not two minutes ago, that would have seen her tear all of them apart, but now the sorrow was too much. Judy only watched Clawhauser turn around and look back at her.

"Another thing. This door is practically unmovable when it's locked. That's what we're going to do to it. Lock it. Oh, and we'll be burning this entire place down. It'll get rid of the incriminating evidence concerning the death of you and Nick there. This really is goodbye, Judy. I wish it could have ended differently. We play the hand we're dealt, I guess."

And he closed the door with a resounding echo that shook Judy's soul.

Judy stood up slowly, her shaking legs almost failing her. The second she was stable on both feet, she ran over to Nick, calling to him. She skidded as she fell to her knees, grabbing his green Hawaiian shirt and shaking him with all her might. But nothing she did opened his eyes.

"Nick, please," she pleaded with him. "Don't do this to me, Nick, I can't live without you, you can't...you can't…" She wrapped both arms around him, one behind his head and one across his back, and buried his muzzle in her chest as she dissolved into tears, clutching him as she dug her nose into his shoulder. His blood leaked into her shirt, and it hit her. Nick was gone. He was really gone. All of the things they'd endured together, enjoyed together, suffered together. All of the situations that nearly saw both of them die. All of the love and the bitterness and happiness and uncertainty. Nick's impulsive, comical nature, his suave smile that had entranced her from the second she met him, his quirky persona, the twitch of his ear and flick of his tail.

They were gone. They were all gone.

Judy had so many things she wanted to tell him. How she was sorry that she had always been suspicious of him. How she loved him for putting up with her father. How she was so thankful to him for getting them out of trouble so many times. She wanted to let him know that she had cherished the days when they were paired together on patrol duty. It had made the experience so much more interesting. All of the new ideas he had for different approaches to everyday tasks, his blend of sarcasm and intelligence, his true being shone brightest when he was stuck in a cop car with her. He even made choosing the radio station somewhat fun ( _"Call it in the air, Carrots."_ ). And now all of it had been destroyed in a single moment, by one hateful coworker - no, old friend - who had betrayed all he had known to bring about the destruction of all that was Zootopia, the shining light on the hill of the world. And there was nothing Judy could do about it

"I love you, Nick," she whispered into his ear. It was all that she could say. It was all that she needed to say. All of those things, Nick's entire life, could be summed up in those three words. Judy had loved him from the start. Nary the slightest qualm of conscience could doubt it. And that was what mattered. Nick had been loved, if by no one else, by her. He was her clever little fox, and he always would be, alive or dead. His soul would live as long as she had breath in her lungs.

And there she sat, clutching the corpse of her soul mate as she rocked back and forth on her knees, the tears pouring down her face. Nick was gone. She knew it, but maybe, just maybe, if she wanted him back badly enough, he would return. It was a thought of childish belief and unreasonable superstition, but she couldn't help but hope that somehow, in some way, he was still alive. And she sat, stroking the back of his head lovingly and muttering, sobbing incomprehensibly.

 _"I love you, Nick."_

Judy's ears perked up, and she gave a sob of surprise. What was that? It had sounded like -

 _"I love you, Nick."_

Her recording pen! Judy instinctively looked down at her hip holster, where it should be. But it wasn't there. It had found its way into -

 _"I love you, Nick."_

Nick's paw! The pen was rewound and played again.

 _"I_ _love you, Nick."_

Judy took Nick's head out of her chest to look. Could it be? Was he really -

"Aww, come on, Carrots, I was enjoying that."

Judy didn't even care that he had said it; she threw her head over his shoulder and shoved his nose into her clavicle, all the while sobbing tears of joy. She felt his arms wrap around her in response and heard his voice, albeit muffled by the cloth of her shirt.

"Jeephhhh Ju-y, I wasphn't _vat_ convinphing, wuv I?"

She pulled him out of her shoulder and looked at him, to which he responded with an uncertain eyebrow raise and a half-open mouth.

Judy held up her paw to smack him in the muzzle, but she didn't. "You let me think you were dead!" she said, settling for a verbal attack. Now she was aware that she had turned from happy to angry in about two seconds. Great. She was already having mood swings.

"Yeah, I know, I'm sorry about that," Nick apologized. "But it worked, didn't it?"

"I-Bu-H-" Judy spluttered for the words. "How did you pull it off?"

Nick unbuttoned his bloodstained Hawaiian shirt and revealed his special vest. Judy covered her mouth with her paw and gasped in joy.

"Yeah," he grinned. "I know, right? That's why I stayed in the car so long. I knew it would be dangerous and that we might get shot at, so I figured, 'Why not?' I never use the thing anyway." He propped himself up on his elbows and winced suddenly. "Ow."

"You didn't actually get shot, did you?!" Judy prepared for panic once again.

"No, not at all." Nick pushed himself to his feet gingerly. "I guess the bullet was enough to bruise me. Either that, or it cracked my rib." Then he stopped as if an idea occurred to him. "Ooh, or both. That would be interesting."

"Hold on, Nick," Judy asked him. "There's no possible way they missed a bulletproof vest. Why do you still have it on?"

Nick furrowed his brow. "I guess it would have to be due to the fact that they were going to just burn the place down anyway. Clawhauser probably just wants me to die with a bruise on my nipple."

Judy laughed involuntarily. That was Nick, all right. She felt the relieved sigh of her soul when she saw that he was the same; he hadn't changed, not one bit. "I'm glad you're back."

Nick nodded, his smile slowly slipping off his muzzle. She suddenly found herself aware that the floor beneath her feet was getting warmer. "Clawhauser started the fire."

Nick sniffed at the air, and wrinkled his nose. "Yeah, I can smell it. Welp," he sighed, "if you have any secrets you're dying to share, now would be the time." He walked over to the wall, sat down, and leaned back against the rusted metal. Judy felt a sudden urge to join him, the voice in her head leading the charge.

Come on, Hopps, it said. This is your last chance. Take it.

Judy didn't need telling twice. She knew the stakes, she knew what was about to happen. And she knew that she wanted to spend her last moments on this living earth with the one animal on the planet that had ever made her feel love. All of the feelings she had for him, all of the things she resented having to endure with him, all of the regrets and the things she wished they could have done together, they all flooded her brain and began to scream at her. Judy slowly approached Nick, almost trying to savor every last movement. These were her last steps, after all. Might as well enjoy everything that happened between now and getting killed. Might as well confess herself while she still could, held in the arms of the world's most caring fox. She slumped her back against the wall and then slid down so that her eyes were level with Nick's.

"So this is it," she sighed, suddenly overcome with weariness. The events that had taken place over the past week had just slammed into her at once, each separately blasting her brain into mush.

"Yeah," Nick said lowly. "This is how we die." Judy heard him chuckle, and she looked at him to see what was so funny, but Nick just stared at his feet. She sniffed at the air The fire was getting closer to them. She could hear it, too. The crackling of certain death.

"Heh," Nick chuckled again, bringing Judy's attention back to him. "I always thought I'd end up dying in a hospital bed after contracting some virus or other. Nope. I get to burn alive. Fun."

Judy chuckled with him, and looked down at the ground, too. "There was just so much I wanted to do before the curtains closed." After a brief hiatus, she found herself just talking, not really aware of why she was doing it. "I was thinking about…" She caught herself. She had almost let it slip that she wanted to have a family with Nick. "Life with a partner," she opted for ambiguity, hoping she hadn't given it away. But she couldn't help glancing over to see Nick's reaction, to see if maybe he picked up that she was talking about him. To her surprise, the muscles in his jaw clenched up, and his muzzle twitched with a specter of sadness.

"Carrots, if we're going to be on this subject for a while, I have a confession to make."

Judy was caught off guard; it wasn't like Nick to admit his faults. "What's going on, Nick?" she asked.

Nick looked like he was in pain, as if each word he was going to say would cut his flesh to the bone. "You remember when Bogo sent us to the casino?" he said slowly. "And I pocketed the extra cash?"

"Yes," Judy said uncertainly, without the slightest idea of where he was going with this.

"Well, I...I used that extra money to buy a ring. And…" Nick's paws and lips were trembling. "That ring was for you."

Judy held her paw to her mouth and gasped in surprise, eyes wide. Nick loved her after all. She began to cry silently, thankful that her deepest hope had been fulfilled. "Oh, Nick…" she whispered through her fingers.

Nick, with tear-stained eyes, pulled his wallet out of his back pocket and pulled out a small bag with the ring in it. It was beautiful, the ring Judy only saw in her wildest fantasies. It was gold all the way round, studded with diamonds, and in the center was a pair of gems the perfect shade of Valentine's-Day red. Judy watched breathless as Nick took it out of the bag and looked at it as it rested on the pad of his trembling paw.

"This is why I called you into the park that morning," he said. "But you left too quickly, and I didn't want to chase you around. So I cried. I kid you not, Judy, I made a little lake of Nick tears that morning."

Judy knew he had meant it as a joke, but it only made her feel even more guilty. She had reduced him to tears that day, and she couldn't bear it.

"God, Nick," she whimpered. "I'm so sorry."

Nick looked at her with watery eyes. "I know you are, Judy. I'm not angry."

Judy nodded. "Thank you," she said, a little more composed than she was a few moments ago. She looked at the ring Nick bought for her. It was beautiful. Hard to believe that he had gotten her the near-perfect ring from her dreams. But...what good would the ring do if they didn't use it?

"Nick…" she started.

"Yeah," he said, a little broken up. He cleared his throat and tried again in a more level tone. "What is it?"

"If you died without using that ring, would you regret it?"

Nick gave a bitter laugh. "Don't imagine I've got an option, do I?"

"That's not necessarily true," Judy said, trying to hint at what she was trying to tell him.

Nick looked at her, and she knew he understood. He gave a wry smile, biting down on the knuckle of his index finger. "All right," he said. "You really want me to do this?"

Judy stood up and nodded. "With all my heart."

Nick, still smiling, grabbed the ring and pushed his tail up off the ground, getting down on one knee and holding out the ring to Judy, gazing into her eyes.

"Judy Hopps, will you make me the happiest fox on the earth and be my wife?"

Judy sniffled, rubbing tears out of her eye with her pawpad. It was really happening. Nick was proposing to her. All of the emotions that a partner brought flooded her mind, and she got so caught up in the moment it felt like forever before she had opened her mouth and said, with utmost eagerness-

"I will, Nick," she whispered. "I will."

Nick slipped the ring around her finger as gracefully as a dancer flying around the stage. The gems sparkled majestically, even in the dim-lit ambience of the room. Here they were, about to die, and Judy now had a fiancé that had proposed to her not ten seconds ago. Life moved in the weirdest ways. Nick rose to full height and pressed his lips to hers as he clasped her ring-clad paw with his own and slid his other paw to the midsection of her back. Judy responded by planting her free paw on Nick's shoulder blade and kissing him passionately. It lasted seconds? Minutes? Who knew? All she cared about was that she was kissing Nick. She didn't know how long it took but eventually Nick began to ease his paw down her back, and she suddenly became aware that it was trying to slide her pants down around her ankles. Quickly, she broke off.

"Please, let's not," she said. "I know I want this at least as badly as you do, but I don't want to do it if we're not married."

Nick seemed a bit disappointed, but he looked fine. "Okay, Carrots. I can respect that. As much as I don't want to die a virgin, I'll back off. Because I love you."

Judy could feel herself blushing, and she prayed that her fur hid it well. "Thanks, Nick."

Nick embraced her again, this time for no reason. But Judy didn't care. As long as she was in Nick's arms, that was reason enough to let him do it. Out of nowhere, her mind shifted: she was in bed with Nick, sweating, panting heavily, but enjoying a euphoria so exotic that she couldn't fathom another situation that would instill this good of a feeling in her-

"If we're going to die together," Nick said, "we're going to die with our bodies intertwined like the lovers we are, Judy."

Judy had no objections. It was such a weird way to say it, but all she had in reply was, "Hold me, Nick. I love you." She buried her face in his furry chest and began rubbing her left cheek against his bare pecs.

She felt Nick's paw stroking her head rhythmically as he twisted back and forth in an attempt to calm her. "It's gonna be okay, Judy. It'll only hurt for a few seconds, and then we'll be together for eternity."

The door burst open with the pressure of the fire and smoke, billowing a cloud of chemicals into the room and blinding them. Judy coughed and sobbed, burying herself deeper into Nick's chest, and Nick kept trying to calm her down, even though his voice's level of fear kept rising and rising, until he sounded like he was begging for mercy from Mr. Big the first time Judy encountered the crime lord.

"It's okay, Judy," he cried in anguish. "We'll only feel it for a tiny bit and then it's all gonna be over! I swear to you, we'll only suffer for a few seconds!" He broke down into sobs, and now they were crying together, fox and bunny, predator and prey, the two most unlikely lovers to walk this earth now cradling each other for comfort, waiting for the fur and the flesh to be burned off of their skeletons as they traveled to the afterlife, whatever awaited them after their bodies were desecrated-

A concussive explosion sent debris flying everywhere, scattering small shards of shrapnel into Judy's fur and tangling with her big ears. She pulled her eyes out of Nick's sternum to see what was going on. Something had blown a hole in the wall behind them, and light was now pouring through, sucking the darkness of the flames into an abyss of Zootopian scenery. Judy didn't know how it got there, but the vast light blinded her and she stood rooted to the ground, frozen with no idea of what to do.

"JUDY!" She heard Nick scream at the top of his lungs and instantly swiveled her head around to try and make him out. Where was he?

"I'M STUCK!" Panic sizzled through her nerves, her veins. Judy ran to where she thought he was. It didn't matter how close she was to him, just as long as she could get him out of here. But her foot caught on something. She heard Nick give a whine of pain as she hit the floor; she had tripped over him. Scrambling to her feet, coughing out burning ash, she squinted through the smoke to see Nick trapped underneath metal shrapnel. Blood flowed from the debris, leaking slowly into view. Judy gave no hesitation; she attacked the cold steel with all of her strength, using every single muscle in her body to its full potential as she wrestled Nick's prison away from him. Nick moved out of the way the instant he realized he could get out of mortal danger, wincing and groaning as he did. As soon as his feet and tail were clear, Judy launched herself backwards and let gravity suck the shrapnel back down to the floor. With Nick free, she looked at him and started talking to him.

"You all right?" she asked.

Nick shook his head, looking down. "I've got something in my foot, but I can still walk!" he yelled over the chaos of flames and clashing building parts.

"Then let's go!" She helped Nick to his feet and acted as a crutch, his every step forcing the majority of his weight on her. Her muscles screamed at her to stop, to let Nick fare for himself, but she refused. She knew he wouldn't make it on his own, and there was no way she would leave him to die just because she wasn't strong enough. And so they powered on, step by bloodied, limping step.

Judy felt the sun hit her face as they broke the visor of smoke and burst out onto the concrete roof of the building. She suddenly became aware that she was wheezing, sooty, and sweating. Then the fatigue kicked in. Her legs collapsed, and she fell down onto the hard concrete roof, gasping for breath

"Walk in the park, eh, Carrots?" wheezed her partner, who also melted onto the roof in a panting heap of blood and sweat. "Agggh," he winced. "That doesn't look good."

Judy took a gander at his foot in order to see what the fuss was about. As soon as she saw it, she turned away in disgust. "Aww, man!" she griped. "That's nasty!"

Nick's right foot had been impaled by a piece of metal wire about a foot long.

"Yeah," came the pained reply. "But I've had worse."

"I don't even want to know, Nick." Judy just wanted to go home.

"No, you really don't."

Judy lay there, panting and looking to the sky. It seemed so much closer when you were on top of a building. But now they knew Clawhauser hadn't put them in a deserted building. They were in one of the most heavily populated skyscrapers in Zootopia. The employees must have already started to clear out by now. But she couldn't just walk out via the fire escape. The fire blocked her path. "So what now?" she asked aloud.

Nick stayed silent for a second, then spoke up. "You see that building to our left?"

Judy looked over to her left to see what he meant. Sure enough, a flat-topped concrete building not ten feet opposite the one they were on lay dormant, practically begging to be used. "Yeah?" Judy asked uncertainly. What was Nick planning?

"We've got to jump," Nick said. "A rescue crew won't make it here in time."

Judy thought he was kidding. "You're out of your mind, right?"

Nick shook his head, still wheezing. With no warning, he tried to stand up, making sudden movements that looked-and-sounded-painful. He tried valiantly; in the end, though, his foot couldn't handle it, and he crashed back down to the ground. Judy's instinct was to run over to him and make sure he hadn't hurt himself even more.

"I'm fine," Nick persisted in short, concentrated breaths.

"Nick, you're insane!" Judy exclaimed. "There's no way you can make that jump, especially with your messed-up foot!"

"I know," came the groaning reply, "but I have to try."

"You already did, Nick," Judy pointed out, taking a reassuring tone that she hoped sounded like a "you've-done-all-you-can" voice. "Come on. We'll get you on your feet, at the very least."

Nick nodded in concurrence and lifted his arm up. Judy wriggled underneath it, digging her shoulder into his armpit and placing her paw on his left clavicle. She arranged his legs into a position that would make it easy for him to stand up, and she grabbed hold of his right paw with her own to prevent him from slipping off her shoulders. When she was satisfied with the entirety of the setup, she looked at Nick. "Are you ready?" she asked.

"If we don't act now, that fire'll be the end of our story," came his reply.

"All right," Judy said. "On three. One...two...three!"

Judy's leg muscles pushed into the ground, her face hardened, she held her breath. Nick's groans and cries of pain pierced her eardrums, but she pushed them back. She couldn't stop. Not now. Nick was counting on her, and if she didn't do it just right, he could lose his foot. And that wasn't about to happen. So she kept attacking Nick's arm as if it was a coiled serpent keeping her under the water and she was starved for oxygen, clawing at the surface and trying to take in even the smallest bit of sweet, sweet air, and she pushed and pushed and pushed…

Nick's weight was gone from her shoulders, entirely supported by the fox's own steam. Judy gave an "Uggh!" of weariness and fell to all fours, breathing heavily and shaking her head to clear the squiggly white protozoa that danced all around her vision. She heard Nick talking to her, albeit in a somewhat weak voice.

"Yeah, Carrots, make a fat joke at the expense of the footless guy."

Judy couldn't help but give a few breathless laughs. "Not...not what...I mean...at all, Nick," she managed to gasp.

"Yeah, I know," came Nick's reply. Judy tried pushing herself up to a standing position, and was glad to see herself able to keep her feet beneath her. But they still needed to get off the roof; the fire was quickly spreading with its new source of oxygen, and they were next on the burn list. She looked around for a solution, but nothing presented itself. The only choice was to jump, and Nick was in no position to even try such a thing. She looked over to Nick to tell him that they had no chance of escape, but was surprised to see him sizing up the jump. She knew what was going through his brain, and she had to stop it. He would kill himself otherwise.

"Nick, you can't!" she yelled at him over the noise of the flames, now raging and burning more than ever. "You'll never make it with that foot!"

Nick turned back to her, a look of pure defiance blazing in his eyes. "I have no choice."

And with his good foot, he pushed off of the roof and left his fate to gravity.

Judy saw it all in slow-motion: Nick's arms flailed in the air as he reached the peak of his jump. He began to drop, falling short of his goal. Judy threw her arm out in a worthless attempt to help him reach the other side. His arms, outstretched, still had minds of their own, never settling. Finally, Nick's rib cage slammed into the side of the skyscraper as his paws scrabbled at the roof, desperately searching for something to hold. His body began to fall, but then it stopped. The tips of his paws had found a haven on the very edge of the roof, leaving his broken body dangling there, slowly slipping off under his weight.

NICK!" Judy shouted his name at the top of her lungs. Without thinking, she did the same as he did: starting with no momentum, she built up her speed, hop after bounding hop, and finally pushed with all of the might in her naturally strong legs against the concrete that had once been her final resting place.

She felt the fear of flying through the air with no control over herself all over again, just like the exploding car. She flailed in the air, not sure if she would make it, then -

WHAM!

Her feet slammed on to the fresh new concrete and she was forced to roll to avoid breaking her legs. As she tumbled, she spun herself around and dug into the ground, trying to keep as little distance between herself and Nick as possible. When she came to a stop, she sprinted for Nick's paws and skidded to a stop right above him.

"Hold on, Nick!" she said, holding her paw out for him.

Nick grabbed on for all he was worth; it took all of Judy's strength not to get pulled over the building herself. She planted both feet on the roof and pulled with vigor. Slowly, Nick became lighter and lighter. The next thing she knew, Nick had used his own feet to heave himself over the wall. Judy felt her legs give out on her, and there they both lay, exhausted and panting.

"So," Nick stuttered. "Y-you wanna call f-for backup?"

Judy nodded and reached for her phone, speed-dialing Wolford. She knew she had put him on speed dial for some reason, but she never knew why until now.

" _Wolford here,"_ came the canine's British tones.

"Wolford," Judy panted. "Send backup to Downtown. There's a building on fire and Ben Clawhauser has confessed to the entire conspiracy."

There was a long and unpleasant silence. Soon, Wolford let loose a slew of profanity. _"This is absolutely f… bonkers, Hopps. F… bonkers, you hear me? That wan… Clawhauser isn't f… smart enough to get his Godd… head outta his a...le."_ Another very uncomfortable silence. _"Fine. I'll call it in. But how the hell's he supposed to be behind the whole thing?!"_

Judy chuckled and looked at Nick. "Long story…"

Nick nodded. "You can say that again."


	23. Judy Saves Nick Again

Judy's whole body was shaking as she helped Nick limp pathetically down the final few steps of the skyscraper. Twenty staircases' worth of walking with a tender fox propped on her shoulder had wiped her out. It didn't surprise her, therefore, when she flopped down onto the very last step, leaving Nick trying to balance himself on one foot.

"Way to leave me hanging, Judy," he said a little reproachfully as he tried lowering himself into a sitting position, succeeding without much apparent pain.

"Sorry," she panted. "Those stairs are tougher than I thought."

"Hm," Nick chuckled. "Well, I think we know who got the worse end of the deal on this one."

"You," she admitted. "I know."

"Me?" Nick gave her a look. "I'm the one that gets to lean on you and get some free walking help. I've just got some temporary-Aggh!-foot damage," he said, apparently feeling a sudden shoot of pain through his foot.

Judy felt something vibrating at the base of her spine. Her phone! She whipped it out to see who was calling, and who else but Wolford? She showed the phone to Nick.

"Gonna take this," she said.

Nick made an ushering gesture with his paw. "Go right ahead, I'm not stopping you."

Judy took the call and held it up to her ear. "Wolford," she started. "What's going on?"

 _"You on your way to the hospital yet?"_

"No, they're not here yet."

 _"Taking their sweet time, then,"_ came the cynical response. _"Listen, I looked into what you said about the conspiracy."_

Judy's ears perked up as he said it; could the truth finally be out? "And?" she asked him eagerly.

Wolford was quiet for a moment or two, but then started to talk again. _"Your hunch was right. Turns out Clawhauser's been behind it from square one. Even Bellwether answered to him...you know, before she was thrown in jail, that is."_

"Wait a minute, now." Judy wanted to make sure she had heard him right; was that even possible? " _Bellwether_ wasn't even the spearhead of the first night howler?"

 _"Crazy, ain't it?"_ came Wolford's somewhat bored reply. _"As far as I'm concerned, all that matters is that we've finally put a lid on this whole thing. Bellwether's done, Ben's done, and they're working on reversing the contaminated formulas. If you ask me, we've finally wrestled control of this situation out of the bad guys' hands."_

"And not a moment too soon." Judy gave a concerned look over at Nick, who was gritting his teeth and pointing his muzzle at the ground. They had survived only by pure luck. Luck that Nick hadn't fallen hundreds of feet to the bustling Zootopian ground. Luck that Clawhauser had assumed they would die in the fire. Luck that they met in the first place, and had journeyed through so many crazy situations together that their bond had become so strong not even the biggest and sharpest of knives could cut it. She turned back to her conversation with Wolford. "Hey, listen, I know it's kind of a stretch," she lowered her voice to a whisper, "but can we plan a surprise party for Nick when he gets out of the hospital?" She could only hope that Nick hadn't heard her; his sense of hearing was already excellent because of the size of his ears, but he was hyper observant to boot. No one but he could ever really tell what he registered and what he didn't. Judy could only pray that the surprise party stayed a surprise.

 _"Yeah, why not?"_ Wolford sighed. _"Work's gonna boring without Clawhauser anyway. Might as well make it fun."_

"Great," Judy replied, speaking just as quietly as she had been. "I'll talk to you later." She ended the call with the push of a button and went to slip the phone back in her pocket, then thought better. She placed it on her lap instead, so if anyone called, she could get to it easier. Judy looked over to Nick again. Was it her imagination, or did he look a little pale underneath all that dense rust-colored fur?

"You holding up all right?" she asked him, somewhat rhetorically.

"Judy," came the start of the reply. "I have a piece of metal stuck in my metatarsals, I just jumped out of a burning building, and the one dude I didn't expect to be bad turned out to be the worst criminal Zootopia's seen since Sal Mahone." He looked at her with a weak smile, his eyes drooping from exhaustion. "Frankly, I think I'm pretty lucky to not have gone insane by this point."

Judy nodded; she knew the feeling. So much had happened. Not even a month ago, the days were carrying on as normal as ever. Now they'd nearly died about three times, arrested three people who were thought to be the animal behind night howler, and been shot at more times than Judy could even count. It would be weird not having any exciting things happen on a daily basis. Was this the true end of night howler? Was everything going to go back to the way it was? For a time, she knew that much, but in the back of her head, she couldn't forget that there would always be a psychotic mastermind to put in the slammer. It was an unnerving thought, that her work would never be done, but for now, she pushed it aside, basking in the somewhat bittersweet reward of a vacation from the huge conspiracies.

"Hey."

Nick jarred her from her thoughts. "What's up?" she asked a little absent-mindedly.

"Thanks for putting up with me," he said. "I know…" He winced, apparently responding to a course of pain through his foot. "I know it's not the easiest thing in the world, but you just take it all in stride, and it makes me love you even more."

Judy prayed that he couldn't see her blushing. "No problem, Nick."

He gave a "Hmm" and a happy smile. "Thanks."

Out of nowhere, Judy remembered Nick's odd behavior at her parents' house. "Hey, Nick," she started. "When we were talking about how Max was recovering, you seemed to be a little...I don't know...disappointed or something. What's up with that?"

Nick sucked at his lower lip for a second, then took a deep breath. "When we visit him in the hospital," he said slowly, clearly choosing his words carefully. "You'll know."

It wasn't the answer she had hoped for, but she was willing to accept it. "All right, Nick. I believe you."

A far-off siren caught her attention. "The ambulance is on the way," she observed.

Nick perked his own ears up. "Yep," he confirmed.

"We should probably get out onto the street," Judy suggested. She knew Nick really didn't want to, but it was better to play it safe in this kind of situation.

"Uggggh," Nick said plainly. "More moving around on this busted foot. What else could I want?"

"I know, Nick," Judy replied in a motherly tone, "but better to do it than live with the fear of it, right?"

"Fine," Nick agreed halfheartedly. "Let's get it over with."

And again Judy assumed her position as a fox crutch, grabbing hold of Nick's arm and slinging it over her shoulders. "On three," she said or the second time in half an hour. "One...two...three!"

They moved as one, standing up with plenty of groans and whimpers, straightening up to their fully erect heights. Their legs moved in sync with each other: innermost, outermost, inner, outer, inner, outer, Nick leaning on Judy each time he moved his left foot. Judy held her paw open to push the door out of the way as they approached it. She felt the cold steel hit her paw, and she pushed against it with most of what little energy she had left. It creaked open slowly, moving inch by inch as they powered through it and into the bustling downtown Zootopia. She could hear burning flames, screaming voices, and wailing sirens fast approaching as she helped prop Nick up against a wall before they both slumped to the ground in unison.

"That better?" he asked her, a little unhappy.

"Sorry," she apologized again. "I just didn't think they'd be able to see us very well if we were in the building."

"No, you're probably right," Nick admitted. "This was probably for the best."

Judy nodded to no one in particular, staring straight ahead. This was going to make history. They were the two cops unfortunate enough to be sent in to investigate the disappearances of two other officers and stumbled upon a conspiracy even worse than the first. They'd be the ones who disguised themselves with prototype robots and infiltrated the highest levels of the mafia. They'd be the ones who unmasked the true leader of the night howler revolution. Twenty years from now, she'd be reading her kid's history book and it would mention her and Nick as heroes.

God, the world was weird.

Nick tapped her on the shoulder, startling her from her predictions. She turned to him, but he was pointing ahead of them, out into the street. She looked, and there stood the ambulances and fire trucks, lights flashing and sirens ablaze. Thank God. Nick could get some help! She stood up as fast as she could and started waving her arms at the hulking chunk of metallic salvation. "Over here!" she called. "Over here!"

One of the paramedics, a lion carrying a stretcher with his buddy, heard her cries, and turned to make eye contact. She saw him look, and began to wave even more wildly. "Help!" she yelled.

He nodded to her, then to his buddy, and they jogged over to her. As he got close, he started talking. "What's the situation?"

Judy directed them to Nick. "His foot," she said simply.

The lion's buddy, a very muscular wolf, bent down and inspected the foot. "Okay, looks like a clean impalement of the foot. Tarsals, metatarsals, and phalanges all seem undisturbed. Let's get you to the hospital." The lion set the stretcher down and helped his friend move Nick on top of it. Then he grabbed his end of it and looked over his shoulder to see that his buddy had done the same, said "One, two, three" and lifted the fox up in perfect unison. Judy couldn't help but tag along with them. She managed to keep herself unnoticed by the medics all the way to the ambulance, but once the lion turned around to help Nick in, he gave her a look of apology and said, "Ma'am, I'm sorry, but we can't let you in here with him."

That wasn't right. There's no way Judy was going to just let them take him away to the hospital without her. He was her fiance, and no one was going to separate them, especially at such a critical time. "No. I'm coming with him."

The lion opened his mouth to speak, but his buddy piped up. "Come on, man. It's not going to have any profound effect. This guy's just gotta get some stitches and he'll be good."

He contemplated it for a minute, apparently mulling it over in his head. "All right," he finally decided. "Hop aboard."

Judy did as she was told, waiting first for Nick and his accompaniment to be seated safely inside the back before she put her foot up on the step and joined them. The lion smacked his paw against the wall a couple of times, and they started moving.

"So what happened to you guys?" asked the wolf.

"You wouldn't believe us if we told you," Judy replied. "We found out who was behind the night howler conspiracy."

The lion whistled, impressed. "Wow," he remarked. "Well, that's a load off, huh?" he asked his friend.

The wolf nodded. "That was all I needed to hear."

In a flash too fast for Judy to comprehend, the wolf drew a silenced pistol and shot the lion in the stomach. Her training took over: Judy threw a paw at his arm, trying to scratch his skin. In an expert move, he dodged her paw and spun around, smacking her in the back of the head with his elbow. She had no time to even cry out in pain; her face was dashed into the bench that the wolf had been sitting on moments ago. She fell down and wound up next to the lion, who was clutching at his wound and breathing raggedly.

"Sorry, folks," the wolf said in a victorious voice. "I can't let you tell everyone that my boss is the guy behind it all. I really wish you hadn't come with us, bunny. You wouldn't have had to die as quickly."

Judy wanted to leap at him, but something made her stop. The wolf produced a needle that glistened menacingly in the dim light of the cabin. "Now, this is going to hurt, buddy," he said, addressing Nick, "but it should take your mind off the foot. So, let's get on-"

The entire cabin jerked as the ambulance hit a speed bump a little too quickly. Judy watched the wolf as best she could with the cabin moving around, but she saw a vulnerable spot that he wouldn't be able to protect in time. The strategy was shaky at best, but it was do or die. The longer she waited, the fewer opportunities she'd have to get rid of the threat.

Now. Do it now.

Judy shot up from the ground into a standing position, but she had no time to think; she was already making her move towards the wolf. He was recovering faster than she had predicted, but if she moved even faster, then it wouldn't make a difference. She locked in on her weapon of choice. Nick would more than likely hate her guts for doing what she was about to do, but it was a small price to pay to escape this God-forsaken ambulance. Still charging the threat, she grabbed hold of the jagged metal shrapnel embedded in Nick's foot and ripped it out with a sickening squelching noise. She could hear Nick screaming in pain, but she had more important things to do right now. The wolf was now aware of what was going on, but he couldn't do anything to stop Judy; his horrified face was all that Judy needed for a reason to follow through with what she wanted to do. With a battle cry that scared even herself, Judy brought the jagged javelin down across the wolf's left cheek, cracking his head to the right. She felt a deep sense of primal satisfaction as she watched his jaw wiggle around while she brought her weapon back to her. Giving the poor canine no time to react, she extended her arm as far behind her as she possibly could. Every part of her conscience was calm, every muscle relaxed, as she thrust the treacherous hunk of steel in the wolf's direction.

The metal spear caught the poor medic in the throat, causing his eyes to open wide and his breath to become thick with blood. He frantically tried to wrestle the smallest morsels of oxygen into his lungs, but the pathway was blocked with metal and his own blood. Judy didn't stop; she was going to make sure he was done for. So she kept her paw on what was once Nick's impediment and drove the wolf up against the wall. As soon as he came to a cold stop, she felt something in his throat give way, and she heard the clash of steel meeting steel. She stepped back from her handiwork, satisfied with the suffocating wolf she had created. She waited to see what he would do, but was surprised when he just stayed there, grasping at his blood-soaked throat, trying to pull the metal out of it. But he couldn't budge it an inch. Then Judy had realized what had happened. As she was throwing him into the wall, she metal hadn't just gone through his throat.

It had gotten stuck in the walls of the ambulance.

And she watched as the wolf clawed at his neck feverishly, trying to free himself, but having no luck, his claws beginning to break the skin in his own throat. She looked on as his mouth slowly started filling with blood, as the red life began to fly from his mouth with each desperate gasp for oxygen he made, as his fur slowly became more and more saturated with fresh, warm blood spewing out of his body, where it belonged. She looked into his eyes, his dying, wide, scared eyes, as his panicked scrambling and gasping slowed and became weaker. She felt her eyes narrowing in defiance as his eyes begged her to save him.

"Paws off my fox," she spat.

The wolf's eyes closed, his ears gave a final twitch, and his body fell limp, his muscular arms that had just tried so hard to free him moments ago now drooping lifelessly from his sides, his throat still leaking blood at an alarming rate. Judy panted, trying to process what had just happened. Did she just kill him? But...but she never killed. Live and let live was her philosophy. She couldn't have just murdered someone.

Could she?

"Jeez, Carrots," came Nick's strained voice. "Remind me not to...piss you off...Uggh…"

Judy felt weak at the knees; she crumpled to the floor of the vehicle and sat there in awe of what she had just seen. She felt faint. Her vision began to blur, and all of the noises she heard became more and more distorted. She could hear Nick calling out her name, probably asking if she was okay, but it didn't matter. She was going to pass out one way or another. And she finally lay down on her side and gave in, falling into unconsciousness.

The last thing she saw was the wolf's corpse dangling by its throat.

* * *

Judy woke with a start and a loud gasp. She was in a hospital bed, but there was an aardvark doctor, who had turned to look at her once he heard her wake.

"Easy now," he said, holding up a clawed appendage. "Everything's completely fine."

Judy was filled with a sudden head rush, and she instantly felt faint, falling back onto her pillow with a thud.

"What happened?" was all she managed to ask before a stabbing pain in her forehead forced her to close her eyes.

"Well, from what we saw in the aftermath of the cabin, consider yourself lucky," he said. "Not a lot of people could walk away from a horror show like that with just a couple of hard hits on the head."

"That wolf," Judy muttered. "I killed him…" She suddenly felt a strong sense of self-loathing. Had it really been necessary? Couldn't she have just knocked him on the head hard enough? No. She had seen the look in his eyes. He didn't have the slightest intentions of stopping. She had to end him. There had been no other way.

"Yes, the metaphorical wolf in sheep's clothing turned out to be part of the night howler conspiracy. He was a somewhat high-ranking member in the mafia...until today, of course."

"What about Nick?" She opened her eyes, the pain now bearable.

"Ah, yes. Nick's foot will be fine. If you hadn't used the shrapnel when you did, we might have had to amputate. His luck keeps coming, it seems. Especially after that incident with the theobromine. He'll be discharged two days from now, but he'll be on crutches, which gets rid of any chances that he'll be working during that time." The doctor stopped putting a bottle of medicine in its cupboard and looked back at her. "I'm surprised you haven't asked what's happened to you yet."

Panic shot through Judy's body. "Why? What happened?" she asked frantically.

"Nothing major," the aardvark chuckled, clearly a little amused. "Like I said, you just got your head hit a couple times. You'll be processed and released within the hour."

Judy perked up. Great! She could go back to her normal old lifestyle before the day was done. "Thanks, Doctor."

"No problem," he said. "Thank _you_ for getting rid of the night howler."

Hold on. She never said anything about arresting Clawhauser. "How do you know that?" she asked him, suddenly suspicious. She was waiting for his reply, hoping to find some weapon she could use to-

"Oh, the cops came in and started debriefing Nick," the doctor explained. "I'm sorry if I frightened you."

Judy chuckled, relaxing. "Sorry," she mimicked him. "I guess I'm just jumpy."

"I completely understand," came the reply. The doctor finished writing a couple of things on his clipboard and tore off the sheet he had been using. "Okay," he sighed, "you've got a few minutes to yourself. I've got to go get some fancy doctor stuff done to approve your release. We'll get results back in no time." He stopped in the doorway to turn around. "If this keeps happening," he said, "we may need to move Zootopia somewhere else."

Yeah. Like _that's_ ever gonna happen. As much as she wanted to say it, Judy bit her tongue and just nodded and smiled. The aardvark closed the door, leaving her completely alone in utter silence.

Judy's first instinct was to reach for her phone, but she found that it was almost out of battery. She put the phone away and sighed in an attempt to calm her nerves. If she didn't have some kind of stimulus soon, she'd probably start talking to herself about whatever came to mind. Talking to yourself was one of the things she knew doctors didn't like. Made 'em think you were insane. So she threw her eyeballs about the room, trying to find something to entertain herself with. Tray? No. Syringe? Yeah, because playing with needles was the safest thing on planet Earth. Pen?

Pen! Judy leaned over and reached for the writing device, and felt the slightest surge of triumph as her paw closed around it with confidence. With her new boredom beater in her grasp, she started trying to do tricks with it. She tried spinning it around her fingers, like Nick did with his drumsticks every time he sat down at a drum set. Her first attempt saw the pen fall clumsily out of her. Undeterred, however, she picked it up off her lap and gave it another go. It spun around once, twice! The pen dropped out of her grip as it transitioned between her ring and pinkie fingers. She picked it up and tried yet again. This time, she accidentally flung it across the room, and it clattered off the counter and onto the floor. Judy winced with gritted teeth as it fell, and as silence came back, she eased back into a normal expression. Well, nothing else to divert her attention. She began to use her head as a source of entertainment, trying to reconstruct her favorite song by Gazelle. It was working quite effectively. She had made it to the second chorus before the doctor interrupted her, walking through the door with a smile wide on his face.

"I've processed you through the system," he said, waving his claws towards the door. "You should be fine within a few days. If any problems persist, don't hesitate to call us."

Judy flipped the sheets off of her body and slid onto the floor. "Thanks, doctor," she said to him as she walked out of the door.

The hospital halls were exactly as she remembered them. Patients, doctors, and visitors, all in equal proportions, bustling about. Prey animals wheeling predators out of their rooms, predators writing and talking to their prey patients. Everyone was getting along in harmony. And that's when it hit Judy. All this time, she thought she had been fighting for her relationship with Nick. And even though he played a huge factor in her life, she realized that the real reason she had put up with so much was because of this: her dream. Ever since that play she had done as a kit, ever since she had joined the academy, ever since she had spoken at Nick's graduation ceremony. Harmony. That was when she stopped fighting: when every animal recognized that everyone was equal. And now that she saw it happening in real life, right there, right then, she felt like she had a little extra bit of closure.

And speaking of extra closure...she had a visit to make.

* * *

Judy sat down, as she so often had, on the safe side of the glass. It never got any easier to see animals who threw their lives away for crime. The best she could do, though, was throw on her "tough girl" face and act as if everything was all right. Her leg was thumping like crazy, and she couldn't stop it. But she didn't think it was out of the sense of danger, more like restlessness. She heard the door on the other side open, and her eyes were drawn to it. She watched as the guard ushered the inmate through to the seat opposite Judy. The inmate sat down and glared as Judy picked up her end of the phone. The inmate did the same, still glaring.

Judy didn't know where to start. "I...guess I owe you an apology, Bellwether," she said.

The sheep narrowed her eyes. _"What for?"_ she asked.

Judy sighed. "For...not believing you when you said you weren't behind it all."

Bellwether burst into a fit of laughter, making Judy jump as the noise cut through her eardrums.

" _What are you apologizing about_ that _for?"_ she replied. _"My reputation's evil enough for you to doubt everything I say, that's all that matters. In the end, we really have nothing but our reputations."_

Judy didn't dignify Bellwether's philosophy lesson with a response; she just asked her next question. "Why did you tell us?"

Bellwether raised one eyebrow. _"You're asking me_ why _I told you I wasn't behind a conspiracy to plunge the shining city of capitalism and equality into anarchy?"_

Well, when you put it that way… But Judy pressed on. "You _want_ the city to plunge into anarchy, though, right?"

Bellwether laughed again. _"Judy. Judy, Judy, Judy. Of course I want to see the destruction of Zootopia. It's at the top of the wish list I sent to Santa five months ago. Course, it hasn't happened. Stupid fat, happy Saint Nick. Anyway, there's nothing I want more than to witness the ruins of flawed perfection. But_ I _want to be behind it._ I _want to be the criminal mastermind who sees her plan through to the end, to be the one in the history book as the most notorious mayor's assistant of all time."_ She a gave a fake sigh. _"The female sex isn't represented enough in the main character aspect of today's stories, Judy. That's what makes us so much more different than everyone else. Leading roles."_

Judy felt a sudden ember of anger at the inmate. "We're nothing alike," she spat.

Bellwether smirked evilly. _"Oh, but we are,"_ she replied coldly. _"We both fight for a cause, a cause we'll see to the bitter end. Mine's just...deadlier."_

"There's nothing in common between us." Judy wasn't as confident anymore; she wasn't as convinced that was she spoke was the truth, rather, she wished that it was true.

" _Female prey, Judy. We've got that going for us."_

Judy narrowed her eyes in thought., but she tried to pass it off as anger. "The only thing you've got going for you is life imprisonment. No bail."

Bellwether chuckled. _"Yes, but I've seen lots of jailbreak movies. So there are a few ideas in this head of mine."_

"If you do break out, you have nowhere to run."

" _What makes you so sure?"_

"The leader of the mafia is dead. An antidote for the night howler is being mass produced. The last guy who tried to use the night howler got caught." Judy's confidence returned, bringing a smile with it. "I'd say you're pretty much out of options at this point."

Bellwether frowned. _"Believe it if you want to, Judy. But you have no idea how resourceful I am. I can do whatever I want whenever I want. I can get out of here faster than you can blink. And I will. And once I'm free, there's nothing that will stop me from having my revenge on you and that stupid fox. Oh, I've got it all planned out, what I'm gonna do with you two. Ooh! Agonizing fun like you wouldn't believe. And just when you think it's over, I'll make sure I'm not shooting blueberries at Nick. Let's see how well you can fake getting your throat ripped out."_

Judy returned Bellwether's hateful glare and heavy breathing with a cool gaze. "Have fun trying."

And she hung up the phone and left Bellwether to the mercy of prison rules.


	24. Sugar and a T-Shirt

Nick didn't look as bad as Judy thought he might. Aside from a few bruises on his arms and the bandage wrapped around the paw pad on his exposed foot, he was as good as new. The doctors had really done a nice job of making him functional again. He seemed to be warming to the idea of using his feet freely again, becoming more and more maneuverable and surprising her each time she came to visit him. It had been...what, three or so weeks now? Frankly, she was surprised that he was still confined to the hospital, but if the doctors said he would end up in worse condition if his paw pad didn't have more time to heal, then she wasn't going to risk it. So she put up with driving all the way out to the hospital before going home for three days a week. She knew he got more visits than just hers (she had seen him talking to, among other visitors, his mother quite a lot, and in fact, his mother was here now), but something about not seeing him at work every day took some of life's interest away from her. So, she told herself, visiting him did at least as much good for him as it did for her. Plus, it was a nice way to get out of planning the surprise party they were going to throw for Nick. That's why she was walking towards him with a two-pound box of candies and a t-shirt that said "Zero given" with a fox in between the words. It wasn't one of her favorite things to see, but sounded like something he'd enjoy. So here she was, giving him sugar and a sarcastic shirt on what was supposed to be his last day at the hospital. She had to admit, it would be great to have Nick back on the beat, but at the same time, she was becoming more and more used to not seeing him at work. It would be an odd change, trying to warm back up to the fact that she'd have to endure him every shift she took. She tried to look at him for a second or two without attracting his attention, but no dice. He caught her eye and smiled as she approached him, and she couldn't tell whether he was looking forward to the chocolate or the conversation.

"Jeez, lady, this is the third time I've seen you this week," he said jokingly. "Stop following me."

His mother shifted her attention from her son to his new visitor. "Ah, Judy!" she exclaimed, rather young for a mother. Judy assumed she was something like forty-seven years old. Which, if it was true, would be odd, considering Nick was twenty-four. Judy returned the hug Mrs. Wilde gave her, and tried to make for light conversation.

"How are you, Mrs. Wilde?" she asked.

"Oh, I'm fine, I'm fine!" replied the vixen. "It's Nick we need to be concerned about."

"Nick," she addressed her fiance. "How're you holding up?"

"Like you haven't texted me the very same question fifteen times in the past two days," he said sarcastically, smiling at her. "I'm perfectly okay, excepting the foot, of course. As I'm sure you know, it's apparently the last day I'm supposed to be here. So that's a plus. But I'll have to take it easy for the first week after I'm released. I guess they don't trust me enough to not hurt myself. How dare they assume I'm clumsy."

Judy didn't know where to take the conversation from there, so she just raised up her arms stupidly in an attempt to give him his gifts. "I got you things."

Nick smirked and snickered. "Judy, you spoil me."

Judy almost opened her mouth to say, "No, I don't!", but caught herself. Now that she thought about it, she had brought him something like seventeen pounds' worth of chocolate in three weeks. She was shocked the doctors hadn't told him he was a diabetic at this point. But she kept it all to herself as she watched Nick look at the box, his eyes slowly opening as he saw what they were.

"That's a _lot_ of sugar highs right there," he said blatantly. Then he unfolded the t-shirt to read it. "Ha!" he exclaimed. "That's hilarious." He was overcome with a fit of giggles.

Judy turned to his mother, who read the t-shirt and shook her head, a smile on her face. "That's just bad. What else have you taught my child?" she joked.

"Aw, come on, Ma," Nick pretended to whine, hugging her. "It's so funny, though!"

Judy smiled. She was happy that Nick still had such a close relationship with his mom. It freed her to know that, in a way, she protected relationships for a living. So many animals with broken stories, stories that she helped to mend.

"Well, Nick, it looks like you've got quite the greeting party for this one."

Judy turned to look at Doctor Gordon, the same aardvark that had taken care of her after the ambulance. "Hey, Doctor!" she welcomed him.

"Hi, Judy," he replied. "Mrs. Wilde."

"Hello, Doctor Gordon," replied Mrs. Wilde.

"So, Nick," the doctor sighed, "are you ready?"

"To re-enter society as a normal citizen? No, but I'll do it anyway," came the signature reply.

The doctor chuckled. "Sounds like you haven't changed a bit since I met you. Good. Well, you're free to go whenever you want to, and now that I've told you, I'll shake your paw and offer my personal congratulations for putting up with being confined in the hospital for three weeks."

"No, thank you for putting up with _me_ for three weeks," Nick replied, earnestly shaking paws with Doctor Gordon.

"Just doing my job," the doctor returned. "Now, I have another patient to attend to, but I wish you a speedy recovery, and I pray that we never have cause to meet again."

Nick laughed. "Loud and clear."

As Doctor Gordon walked away, Nick turned to his mother. "Hey, Ma, have you checked in on Dad lately?"

Judy felt a twinge of guilt. How could she have forgotten? Nick's dad! Of course! He had been recovering ever since they found the secret underground night howler lab, and he wasn't scheduled to be released for another month or two! Judy suddenly became very nervous. What if Nick's attitude toward her changed?

"Oh, Oscar's doing just fine," Mrs. Wilde informed her son. "The doctors are optimistic about getting him out of here on time. Just needs a lot of rest."

"All right, then," Nick said, both sounding and looking a little disappointed. "I'll go ahead and leave him be for now. I've gotta go see Max anyways. I know _he_ 's allowed to have visitors."

"I'll come with you, Nick," Judy piped up, remembering that if she came with him, she would know why Nick had been acting strangely.

"All right, Carrots," Nick agreed as he looked at her. "You can come with."

"Well, I'll just go ahead and head home now," Mrs. Wilde said. "The house won't clean itself."

"Okay, Ma," Nick replied, kissing her on the head. "Be safe heading home now."

"I will, hon," his mother replied before turning around and leaving Judy's fate in the paws of her son.

"So, Jude," Nick sighed, "How's everything going at the HQ?"

"Well, it's been a weird journey, that's for sure," Judy reported. It was true; lots of changes had been made. "Let's see...Bogo was reinstated as chief of police about a week and a half ago. We found a new receptionist to fill Clawhauser's shoes, and, surprisingly, everyone's actually really been hit hard by losing you."

"Yep," Nick responded. "Takes one defective cog to throw the whole machine out of order."

"Wow, getting your foot impaled with part of a roof showed you some modesty, didn't it?" Judy asked him, rather surprised that he hadn't spoken like he was the epicenter of the department.

"Yeah," Nick replied. "Well, that and…" he gave her a look that seemed somewhat daunted.

Judy raised an eyebrow in confusion. "And…?" she prompted him.

"And...well…" Nick fumbled for the words, but he seemed to have no luck. So instead, he grabbed an invisible cylinder with both paws and stabbed it at something. That's when Judy realized what he was talking about.

"No," she said, sounding a little apologetic. "No, no, no, Nick. I was trying to defend us, not hurt you!"

"I know," he replied, throwing his hands up in defense; apparently he thought she might stab _him_ through the throat, too. "You were thinking on your feet, and that was the only solution that held weight, I get it. Actually, if anything...I'm proud of you."

Judy tilted her head involuntarily. He was...proud of her? Why?! She had killed someone! That was practically unforgivable! She tried to play it cool on the outside, but these thoughts screamed at her conscience as Nick answered.

"Yeah," he said. "All of that time I spent talking to you about being adaptable to any situation, all the weak points on an opponent, all that…" He wrapped one arm around her. "I love it when you surprise me like that, hon."

Judy put on a smile. "Thanks, Nick."

"No problem, Judy." Nick relinquished his arm and cleared his throat. "So, what say we visit Max?"

Judy nodded. "Sure, why not?"

Max didn't look half as bad as he did when Judy had pulled him out of the Cliffside Asylum. His fur was growing back, the rings under his eyes weren't nearly as defined, and she couldn't make out the distinct parts of his skeletal system anymore. It looked like all the time he spent recovering had begun to pay off. That is, of course, until he saw her walking in with Nick.

When the doctor had told him, "Max, you had visitors," she had made sure to check his reaction before he saw who the "visitors" were. His attention had immediately focused on the positive: his smile came out, he perked up in his bed, and his eyes leaked hopeful anticipation. At least, that's all that she had been able to make out between the blinds that had been drawn behind his window.

Now that he saw Nick, he didn't look half as well.

"Long time, huh, Max?" Nick sighed pleasantly, as if they were just two friends talking in the park.

Max could only sputter, his eyes agape in fear.

"Ouch," Nick remarked, making a wincing face as he said it. "I mean, I know our relationship was really rocky last we met, but that's hurtful, Max."

"L-Listen," Max stammered. "I know wh-what you're thinking…"

"Really?" Nick asked him. "For both our sakes, I hope not." He knocked on his skull. "Mental images can get pretty racy up here."

Judy couldn't help but contribute to the dialogue. "Charming," she chimed in with sarcasm.

Nick responded by turning back and giving her a suave wink.

"Okay, I know we shouldn't have done what we did to you, but I didn't mean it!" Max was slowly finding words, and, coincidentally, slowly becoming more and more annoying. Nick turned around to focus his attention on their conversation.

"Come on, Max, we both know that's not true."

"We were young and stupid! I don't believe that crap anymore!"

Judy still couldn't figure out what they were talking about. "Wait. What's going on?" But all she got in response was Nick holding up his paw, gesturing for her to be silent while he talked with his old acquaintance.

"But you did. And it's the thought that counts, Max." Judy's heart spiked, her adrenaline rushed; Nick's voice was getting dangerously calm. He was probably seconds away from an outburst, and she didn't want to have to intervene if he did. So she did the first thing that came to mind: she grabbed his shoulders and began to massage.

"Okay, Nick," she began in a soothing voice. "Calm down."

But if anything, she seemed to further his anger. "You want to know what I had to endure because of you? Fifteen bones a day on cigarettes. In high school. _High school_ , Max. Do you know how dark my thoughts got?"

"I wish it never happened too, Nick, okay?" Max almost seemed to be begging for his life without actually saying the words. "I wish I could go back and undo it, then none of this would ever have happened!"

"But you can't, can you?"

Judy realized that in all the tension, she had stopped rubbing Nick's shoulders. The bitter resentment in his voice had kept growing and growing, and her mind must have subconsciously recognized the futility of her efforts. So she remained still, hoping that nothing would escalate out of control.

"You can't go back in time and change the past. What's done is done." Nick was getting restless, and Judy instinctively backed away, slowly, so he wouldn't notice it and turn on her, too. "You'll never get to take it back, never get to—to reset what you guys did to me that night."

"I know, I know it," Max groaned. "I didn't—I don't…"

"I still have nightmares about it," Nick said, deadly calm, looking at his fidgeting victim in loathing. "To this very day. How long ago did it happen again?"

Judy was overcome with a hunch she desperately hoped was absolutely wrong. Could Max…?

Max licked his lips and twitched his nose nervously. "Well, I—it certainly has to have been sev—"

Nick slammed his paw on his chair, threw himself to a standing position, and yelled in one swift movement, his tail bristling with rage. The chair he had been sitting was thrown back with the sudden change in force, sending Judy diving out of its way to avoid physical injury.

" _We were kids, damn it!_ " Nick yelled. "You got my hopes up, and then you laughed in my face!" He scoffed, then turned his back to Max, like he couldn't bear to look at him anymore. "'Helpful and trustworthy,' my ass."

Judy had been right. "You mean…?"

Nick raised an angry eyebrow, folding his arms. "Judy Hopps, say hello to the kid who spearheaded the Ranger Scouts' 'Let's Muzzle Nick Wilde' Project." He turned around to look at Max, who looked as petrified as ever.

Judy couldn't take it all in at once. The only one who could save the city was the one that had been so mean to Nick when he wanted to join the Ranger Scouts? How could Nick have been that energetic as he leapt out of the chair, what with his paw pad and all? Why was he still so mad at Max? It couldn't have been that devastating to him, could it? "Nick," she said to his back softly, trying to persuade him. "It was a harmless childhood prank."

She could see Nick's eyebrow raise again as he turned around to look at her, eyes wide and claws somewhat bared.

"'Harmless?'" he spat. "So causing depression is 'harmless' now?" His paw whipped out and pointed a sharp claw at Max. "He's one of the reasons I've grown used to the feeling of holding a gun to my own throat! For two years I lost faith in myself because of this motherf—"

Out of nowhere, the irate fox buckled at the knees and fell down to all fours, his claws scraping the hospital tiles as he saved his nose from slamming into the ground. The only sound was his labored, heavy breathing. Judy was rooted to the floor. She didn't want to move, lest she anger her fiance. But Nick shook his head as if to clear it, then looked up at her. As he did, she saw that he was crying.

"I told myself I wouldn't do this," he whimpered, his voice breaking.

Judy walked to him, on pure instinct, and comforted him as best she could. Whatever had just happened was too much for her to process, and she found herself absentmindedly stroking Nick's head as she tried to rework what had led him to make such an outburst. "Shhhh," she goaded him quietly while she rocked him back and forth. She could hear him weeping silently into her shoulder as she did. "Nick, you're okay," was all she said as they stayed there, repeating it over and over, almost thinking that by saying it she meant to calm herself.

"God, Nick," came Max's stunned, small, wavering voice. "I...I never thought it was that bad."

Nick said nothing; he just kept sobbing quietly, his head occasionally jerking into Judy's shoulder as he did. Judy looked over at Max. She didn't know what to feel. Anger, for the destruction of Nick's confidence? Pity, for the sudden freight train of guilt that had just slammed into him? Repulsion, for fear of the fact that he might end up doing the same thing again? But all she said was, "You're forgiven, Max."

As soon as the words parted with her lips, she realized what she had done. Could she have initiated another of Nick's rages? But the fox gave no objection, so Judy just went with it. It seemed her mind had already made itself up: she held no grudges against the ex-bully. Max was a victim just as much as Nick was in this situation. And for the first time in a while, Judy felt closure. Everything had been dealt with: Bellwether, Clawhauser, Max. It had all come together, wrapped up in a nice end. No question was unanswered, nothing was left to hide. She felt a strong urge to get up and go back to fight crime until she married Nick, and then go right back to being a cop. So she grabbed Nick gently by the underarms and pulled him up to a standing position and steadied him. He looked at her with his fist to his mouth to keep himself from crying as he blinked tears out of his eyes.

"All right, Nick," she told him softly. "Say goodbye."

Nick turned back to look at Max. "Listen, I—" He choked on a sob. "I'm sorry for…" He gestured around. "All of this."

"I—I—" Max still couldn't form sentences very well. "I'm so sorry."

Nick nodded his head in acknowledgement; he looked really close to breaking down again, and probably didn't want to risk it.

Judy helped him out of the room as she wished Max a speedy recovery.

"Get better soon, Max," she told him. "The city needs you."

Max simply nodded and gave a goodbye wave.

As she drew his door shut, she turned to Nick, who seemed to be coming back from his brief episode rather quickly. "Are you all right, Nick?"

Nick nodded. "I...I'm okay." He grabbed his side. "Uggh, think I'm gonna be sick."

Judy immediately held out her paws to steady him. "You were kind of harsh on your foot back there."

"I know," he agreed, sniffling. "Heat of the moment thing, I guess."

Judy tried to let him use her as a crutch. "You need help out of here?" she offered.

Nick waved her off, holding up a paw in polite rejection. "I'm good."

Judy nodded and left him to his own devices. She couldn't suppress a smile as she watched him go. Three weeks ago, he would have struggled to just get his foot on the ground, and now he could do it without any help. He had come a far way, all right. She ran to catch up with him, taking extra care to match his exact stride. He looked at her, a little surprised at first, then he grinned and ruffled the fur on top of her head.

"That's my dumb bunny right there," he teased.

"Clever fox," Judy nipped back.

And so they walked, two ends of the primal spectrum, moving along without a care in the world as they meandered ever closer to sweet wedlock.

Judy couldn't wait to say "I do."


	25. Epilogue: The Dance

**EPILOGUE**

"I love our job. Did I ever tell you that, Carrots?"

Judy gave Nick a look of amusement. "Always focused on the job, huh?"

"Aww, that's not fair," said Nick as the room twirled around. "I can have fun whenever I want. Besides, I see you all the time."

"That's cause we're together now," Judy remarked, raising her paw up in unison with Nick's. She clasped it tenderly, and he returned the gesture.

"Yeah, we are, but I meant at work," Nick replied with an amused smile. "Now be quiet. It's not polite for the newlyweds to talk during the first dance."

Judy couldn't keep herself from giggling as they spun and began to tango. She looked at all the guests as they gazed intently at her careful ritual with Nick, who held her in his arms gently as a rose petal. She turned back to gaze deeply into his eyes, his kind green eyes, and fall in love with him even more. The band's singer began to sing. What he was saying, Judy didn't care. All that mattered was Nick. She stepped in time with him as he led her.

She was a bit surprised when he went to twirl her again, but she recovered quickly, pulling it off with what she hoped was grace. But as she came back around, ready to grab Nick's paw again, the wily fox let her fall into the classic finishing stance, wrapping his arm around her back and placing one paw on the back of her head in a romantic gesture. Somehow, his eyes demanded the attention of hers, and she gazed into them, almost in a trance. It felt nice in this position, in this place. They should just stay here forever.

The song ended, to which the audience applauded politely. A whistle of enthusiasm was heard here or there, but aside from the thousands of paws clapping, that was all that could be heard as Nick brought Judy back up to a standing position.

"Nice dance," he said; she could hear him panting ever so slightly.

"Thank you," she replied with what she hoped was a romantic smile.

 _Tssshhh!_ The drummer's sudden crash cymbal made Judy jump. The beat was grooving quite nicely in the encore, and the swinging beat of the toms entranced her. Her heart sped up as she got whisked away in the spirit of the music. Nick looked over at her.

"Dance?" he asked.

Judy smiled again and beckoned. "On with it, then."

She could hear her family members "Whoo!"ing, egging them on to dance again. Nick held his arm out and started fanning himself with his paw, encouraging the onlookers to get louder. They met his goading with enthusiasm, cheers elevating, claps growing, whistles piercing. Nick smiled, closing his eyes and nodding in approval. Then he opened his eyes, bent his knees, brought his paws out in front of his like he was begging, and pulled his best bucktoothed expression, pointing his ears as straight as he could. Judy smirked and rolled her eyes, debating whether to go along with it, then succumbed, mimicking Nick's bunny pose.

Nick made the first move, hopping quickly, legs so tight together they could have been glued with ease, as he moved in time with the drums. It was funny to see him impersonating a primal rabbit, and the humor increased due to his tuxedo. Judy suppressed a laugh and started hopping in reply, inching closer and closer to him, moving her arms back and forth in an alternating fashion with each move she made. They reached each other just as the trumpets and saxophones hit a squealing, high-energy note to start the beginning of the ensemble. Judy acted on instinct, taking hold of him and beginning to spin. He did the same to her, responding with surprising speed, and picking the pace up a little bit. She tried her best to match his vigor, and found it easier than she thought. Then she thought of a move she wanted to use, and she locked eyes with Nick once again. They were close enough that they could talk to each other without anyone hearing what they said. Judy went for it.

"When I say go, start twirling me around as fast as you can," she muttered.

Nick looked a bit hesitant, but kept up the dance to keep the guests on their feet. He nodded in agreement. "What do have in mind?"

"Let's just say it'll sweep you off your feet," she said.

They kept dancing with as much vigor as they had started with. At one point, Nick took the floor for two and a half seconds, giving Judy a much-needed rest as the fox did a quick breakdance number. But he startled her, and she assumed everyone else in the room as well, when he effortlessly pulled out of an elbow spin by backflipping in a way that landed him right next to her. He extended his paw.

"Dance?" he offered.

Judy took his paw in hers; it was time to show him up.

"Now," she replied.

"All right," he said hesitantly, "but don't hurt yourself."

She grabbed his other paw and fully extended her arms, forcing Nick to do the same. And they spun. Nick became the pivot, spinning round and round with Judy. Eventually, she felt gravity start to distort, and she let her legs fly into the air, victims of centrifugal force. Nick gave a small groan of effort, but kept his cool as he picked up more and more speed. The world became a blur. Judy watched Nick as she panted with the force that their movement exerted on her whole body. She could see sweat on the neck of his tuxedo, and his fur was slowly getting more and more damp. His brow furrowed with concentration. She could feel his pulse in her fingers, and her mind told her it was time.

"Let's finish it," she said, hoping no one could hear them.

Nick heeded her, slowing her down quickly but safely. Soon, he had gotten rid of enough force that she could do what she wanted. She forced her right leg to bend, and as Nick turned, she planted one foot into the ground and used the other one to throw Nick into the air. Nick flailed for a second as he found his legs off the floor, but relaxed as Judy grabbed him just as he had done to her minutes ago. Nick looked surprised and scared at the same time, panting heavily as he looked at her.

The band screamed the final note as Judy locked lips with her husband.

Nick's arm slithered around her back and stroked her tenderly. Judy held the kiss for a second, then took her lips away and pulled him out of the danger zone to raucous applause. They held paws and waved at their friends and relatives. Judy talked to Nick through her teeth.

"Take a break?" she asked.

"Yeah," he chortled back.

They stepped off the stage, getting thumbs up and pats on the back as they returned to their seats, where their immediate families were. Judy saw her mom staring at her, beaming and misty-eyed. Nick's best man, a fox whom she didn't recognize, sat next to Mrs. Wilde, and Judy's maid of honor, Officer Fangmeyer, was right next to her father. And her father...

Her father couldn't even speak, he was crying so hard.

"That was wonderful, Judy," her mother gushed.

Judy smiled. "Thanks, Mom."

Nick gave her a peck on the head as she sat down. "That was an interesting move you did back there," he complimented.

"Thanks," Judy repeated, giving him a smile.

"No problem. One question, though." He looked down at his right leg. "Is it normal if my kneecap's being impaled by my tibia?"

Judy laughed. "You're so bad!" she teased.

Nick just chuckled as he turned to his parents. "Thanks for being here, guys."

"You kidding?" his father said, looking much better than when Judy had last seen him; he was actually rather buff now. "I wouldn't miss this for the world!"

"You doing all right, Dad?"

His father scoffed. "I'm fine! It's all a thing of the past now. Everything's gone. I don't have anything to worry about. Except grandchildren," he said, suddenly serious as he raised an eyebrow.

Nick's mom gave a small gasp. "Oscar!" she said reproachfully.

Nick chuckled nervously. "Dad, that's what the honeymoon's for."

"You haven't gotten busy yet?!" came the hushed reply.

"Dad, she's not a tool!" Nick hissed. "Didn't you ever get the 'love is patient' talk?"

Judy was surprised to see his father break into laughter.

"That's my boy!" he exclaimed, slapping Nick's back. "I knew you'd figure this all out on your own! Always making me proud!"

Nick's best man stood up and clinked his glass in the traditional fashion. The room's attention was grasped firmly by the ensnaring noise, and all eyes were on him.

"Wow," he said, looking at his glass. "I didn't think that would work."

Appreciative chuckles scattered around the tables.

"When Nick asked me to be his best man…" he paused as if he was thinking of what to say next. "...I thought to myself, 'He must really love whoever he proposed to.' And when he told me it was Judy Hopps, my next thought was, 'Yeah. He really loves the woman he proposed to.' You know, I always hear that office relationships never work out." He cast a glance at Nick, then to Judy, then back to Nick again. "But seeing these two working together, even on something as simple as a dance…" He paused and sighed. "If you can fall in love with someone and overthrow two criminal conspiracies with that someone, you're pretty much made for each other." He raised his glass even higher and looked directly at Nick.

"If I ever meet a girl, and we get along half as well as you do, I'll consider myself lucky. Many happy years, you guys."

The guests "Aww"ed their appreciation as the best man sat back down.

"Nice job, Mike," Nick said as they traded an informal handshake.

"So, Nick," Judy asked him as he turned to look at her. "Do _you_ think we're made for each other?"

Nick brushed her cheek with his paw. "If not, then what the hell are we doing here?" he purred, sounding as if he had been entranced by the very sight of her.

Judy giggled. "Good point."

"Well, folks," Mike sighed, "I hope you enjoyed watching me scare the living daylights out of myself."

"It was a good toast, Mike," Nick responded. "It meant a lot to me."

"Like I said, many happy years," Mike replied with a smile.

Judy agreed. Many happy years…

With Nick.

 **THE END**


End file.
